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- ANYTHG WENTFOR 33 MONTHS, STUD 54 WAS THE GIDDY EPICENTER OF 70S HEDONISM, A DIS HOTHOE OF BETIFUL PEOPLE, ENDLS E, AND EVERY KD OF SEX. ITS -OWNERS STEVE RUBELL AND IAN SCHRAGER KICKED OFF THE AGE OF THE ONE-NAME CELEBRY—CHER, ANDY, BIAN, HALSTON—AND RO A MIRACULO WAVE OF POWER AND PLEASURE UNTIL BROUGHT THEM CRASHG DOWN UNR CHARG OF TAX EVASN. COMG ON TWO S AFTER THE VELVET ROPE WENT UP, BOB COLACELLO REMEMBERS THE GREATT CLUB OF ALL TIME.BY BOB COLACELLOSEPTEMBER 3, 2013SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVE‘I HAD MORE FUN AT STUD 54 THAN ANY OTHER NIGHTCLUB THE WORLD,” SAYS SIGNER DIANE VON FURSTENBERG. “I WOULD HAVE DNER WH MY CHILDREN, PUT ON MY WBOY BOOTS, TAKE MY MERCES, PARK THE GARAGE NEXT DOOR, GO FOR A UPLE OF HOURS, FD SOMEONE, AND LEAVE.”“I LOVED GETTG OUT OF A B AND SEEG THOSE LONG L OF PEOPLE WHO ULDN’T GET ,” SAYS BRIGID BERL, ONE OF ANDY WARHOL’S FACTORY WORKERS. “AND I’D JT WALK , AND FELT SO GOOD—ALL THOSE PEOPLE STARG AND WAVG AND TAKG PICTUR OF EVERYONE WHO GOT , THKG IF YOU GOT YOU MT BE SOMEBODY. THE PLACE DID HAVE A FEELG OF FAY. IT WAS LIKE GOG TO ANOTHER FACTORY, BEE YOU’D SEE EVERYONE OM THE OFFICE—FRED HUGH, CATHERE GUNS, CHRIS MAKOS—EVERY NIGHT, ALL NIGHT. ANDY WOULD BE ENSNCED ON A UCH WH BIAN AND HALSTON. IF YOU MISSED A NIGHT, ANDY WOULD SAY, ‘YOU MISSED THE BT NIGHT.’ AND IF HE HADN’T BEEN THERE, HE’D BE ON THE PHONE THE FIRST THG THE MORNG, WANTG TO KNOW WHO WAS THERE.”“I ED TO GO WH TA CHOW,” SAYS PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID SEIDNER. “I REMEMBER THE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR MICHAEL CHOW THERE. THEY RE-CREATED PEKG, AND PEOPLE WERE RRIED ABOUT ON PALANQUS— WAS REALLY OVER THE TOP. IT WAS WILD. ANYTHG WENT. AND I WENT THERE WH ALL KDS OF PEOPLE, OM CLON TO SOCIAL. IT EXISTED A TIME WHEN WAS HIP TO BE GLAMORO. YOU ULD GO JEANS OR BLACK-TIE, AND IF YOU WERE BLACK-TIE YOU ULD STILL PICK UP CUTE BOYS JEANS. IT WASN’T ONLY A GAY PLACE. BUT WAS FELY A PICKUP PLACE. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, YOU’D LEAVE 54 ACPANIED.”“ONE NIGHT I WAS STANDG BY THE BAR,” SAYS FORMER DETAILS LUMNIST BEREGARD HOTON-MONTGOMERY, “CHATTG WH WAY BANDY AND HARRY KG, WHO WERE THE HOTTT HAIR AND MAKP PEOPLE THE WORLD THEN—THEY DID THE COSMO VERS WH SVULLO. AND ALL OF A SUDN THE THREE OF STOPPED GABBG AND STARED STRAIGHT AHEAD, BEE THERE WAS GENERAL MOSHE DAYAN, WH HIS EYE PATCH, TALKG TO GA LOLLABRIGIDA.”“IT FELT LIKE YOU WERE GOG TO A NEW PLACE EVERY NIGHT,” SAYS KEV HALEY, THEN A MOL, NOW A HOLLYWOOD RATOR. “AND YOU WERE, BEE THEY CHANGED ALL THE TIME FOR THE PARTI. REMEMBER THE DOLLY PARTON PARTY? IT WAS LIKE A LTLE FARM WH BAL OF HAY AND LIVE FARM ANIMALS—PIGS AND GOATS AND SHEEP. AND THE HALLOWEEN PARTY: AS YOU ME UP THE RAMP THE FOYER, YOU LOOKED THROUGH LTLE WDOWS TO LTLE BOOTHS WH MIDGETS DOG THGS. THE ONE THAT STICKS OUT MY HEAD HAD A MIDGET FAY EATG A FORMAL DNER. IT WAS LIKE A NONSTOP PARTY. THERE DIDN’T SEEM TO BE ANY GUILT THOSE DAYS. DENCE WAS A POSIVE THG. COE WAS A POSIVE THG. IT HAD NO SI EFFECTS. OR SO WE THOUGHT.”“O. J. SIMPSON MA A PASS AT ME AT STUD 54,” SAYS BARBARA ALLEN KWIATKOWSKI, A STAR BETY OF THE 70S. “A REALLY BIG PLAY. I ED TO GO TO DANCE, BUT THEN ALL THE MEN WOULD CHASE AFTER YOU BEE YOU WERE DANCG. SO I’D GO HOME HALSTON’S LIMOE. I’D DUCK DOWN SO THEY ULDN’T SEE ME, BUT THEY’D N AFTER THE R ANYWAY! OH, GOD, WE HAD SUCH GOOD TIM. REMEMBER THE FOUNTA THAT WAS A BLOCK AWAY, ONT OF ONE OF THOSE BIG NEW OFFICE BUILDGS ON SEVENTH AVENUE? WE ED TO GO SWIMMG THERE AFTER 54—WE’D JT FLIP OFF OUR SHO AND DIVE .”NEXT YEAR, TWO S WILL HAVE ELAPSED SCE STEVE RUBELL AND IAN SCHRAGER—“TWO P. T. BARNUM TYP OM BROOKLYN,” AS A VETERAN NEW YORK SCENE-MAKER PUT —OPENED STUD 54 A FORMER CBS TELEVISN STUD ON WT 54TH STREET BETWEEN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH AVENU AND BEGAN THEIR LIR REIGN AS THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHS OF MANHATTAN NIGHTLIFE. AND YET THOSE WHO REGULARLY MA PAST THE LEGENDARY VELVET ROPE RELL THEIR NIGHTS THERE WH AN IMMEDIACY THAT MAK THAT REEE, FARAWAY TIME SEEM LIKE YTERDAY. “WE WERE THE GENERATN WHO HAPPENED TO BE YOUNG BETWEEN THE PILL AND AIDS,” NOT VON FURSTENBERG WH A SIGH. “AND WE REALLY KNEW HOW TO HAVE FUN.”“IN MY MD, I REMEMBER AS A 10-TO-15-YEAR PERD,” SAYS HOLLYWOOD TALENT MANAGER SANDY GALL, WHO EQUENTLY FLEW OM LOS ANGEL TO NEW YORK TO GO TO STUD 54. “IN REALY ONLY LASTED TWO OR THREE YEARS.” IT WAS 33 MONTHS, TO BE EXACT, BETWEEN THE TUMULTUO OPENG-NIGHT PARTY ON APRIL 26, 1977, AND THE TUMULTUO FAREWELL PARTY FOR RUBELL AND SCHRAGER ON FEBARY 2, 1980, TWO NIGHTS BEFORE THEY WERE TO BE RCERATED FOR E-TAX EVASN. “THE LIFE OF 54 WAS CUT ABPTLY SHORT,” SAYS WH STILLMAN, THE DIRECTOR OF METROPOLAN AND BARCELONA. “AT THE HEIGHT OF , WAS SUDNLY OVER.”STILLMAN, WHOSE FIRST DATE WH HIS FUTURE WIFE WAS AT STUD 54, IS CURRENTLY WRG THE SCRIPT FOR HIS NEXT FILM, THE LAST DAYS OF DIS, MUCH OF WHICH WILL BE SET “A FICTNAL CLUB VERY MUCH LIKE 54.” SANDY GALL’S SANDOLLAR PRODUCTNS AND PRODUCER JOHN DAVIS ALSO HAVE A STUD 54 MOVIE VELOPMENT. NEXT SPRG, NDR TELEVISN, THE PBS OF GERMANY, WILL AIR THE LAST DANCE, A FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY PRODUCED AND -DIRECTED BY AL CORLEY, WHO WAS A DOORMAN AT 54 BEFORE STARRG DYNASTY. AND WRER ANTHONY HAN-GUT IS WORKG ON A BOOK ABOUT THE DIS ERA, TLED THE LAST PARTY, TO BE PUBLISHED TIME FOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF STUD 54’S OPENG.WHY SO MUCH FS OVER A SHORT-LIVED NIGHTCLUB? LIKE JAM DEAN THE 50S AND THE BEATL THE 60S, STUD 54 SO EMBODIED S TIME THAT ULDN’T LAST LONG. THE WHOLE WORLD, SEEMED, ME TOGETHER ON THAT STROBE-L DANCE FLOOR A WAY THAT SEEMS NCEIVABLE THIS AGE OF PLAGUE, POLIL RRECTNS, MORAL RIGHTEONS, AND SOCIAL AGMENTATN. UPTOWN AND DOWNTOWN, L.A. AND D.C., LONDON, PARIS, ROME, AND R, SOCIETY QUEENS AND DRAG QUEENS, ATHLET AND ARTISTS, BUTANT AND HIPSTERS, MAYOR BEAME AND ROY COHN, DIANA VREELAND AND MIZ LILLIAN—THEY ALL WERE THERE.MOST POPULARJENNA ORTEGA REILS AT JOHNNY DEPP DATG RUMORS BY EVE BATEYDONALD TMP SPENDS LABOR DAY WEEKEND PLANNG A REVENGE TOURBY JACK MCCORDICKCHRIS ROCK AND JOEL KNAMAN FLEE BURNG MAN FTIVAL IN WAKE OF FLOODG, DEATHBY EVE BATEY“WHEN STEVE AND IAN STARTED STUD 54, I THK THEY THOUGHT THEY’D JT HAVE ONE OF THE BIG DISTHEQU TOWN,” SAYS MIC MOGUL AHMET ERTEGüN, WHO HAS SEEN ALL, OM EL MOROC AND THE STORK CLUB TO THE PEPPERMT LOUNGE, ARTHUR, THE DOM, LE CLUB, RéGE’S, XENON, AREA, AND NELL’S. “I DON’T THK THEY EVER IMAGED WOULD END UP AS THE GREATT CLUB OF ALL TIME.”‘THE IA WAS,” IAN SCHRAGER SAYS, “I WAS GOG TO BUILD AND STEVE WAS GOG TO GET TO NQUER MANHATTAN.” SCHRAGER IS NOW 49, MARRIED TO FORMER NEW YORK CY BALLET DANCER RA NORONA, AND THE FATHER OF A BABY GIRL. HE IS STG BEHD A MATTE-BLACK SK HIS STYLISHLY UTILARIAN OFFICE THE PARAMOUNT HOTEL ON WT 46TH STREET, HEADQUARTERS OF IAN SCHRAGER HOTELS, INC. A FEW DAYS EARLIER, WWD ANOTED HIS RECENTLY OPENED DELANO MIAMI BEACH “STUD 54 WH SUN” AND LISTED THE LUMARI SEEN LOUNGG BY S PHILIPPE STARCK-SIGNED POOL—CALV AND KELLY KLE, DAVID GEFFEN, BARRY DILLER, SANDY GALL, NAOMI CAMPBELL, KATE MOSS, VICTOR ALFARO, RUPERT EVERETT, BRIAN AND ANNE MCNALLY. A FEW DAYS LATER, HE WILL FLY TO L.A., WHERE STARCK IS REDOG SCHRAGER’S LATT AND LARGT ACQUISN, THE MONDRIAN, ON THE SUNSET STRIP.SCHRAGER AND RUBELL OPENED THEIR FIRST NEW YORK HOTEL, MANS, 1984, THREE YEARS AFTER THEY GOT OUT OF JAIL. THE ROYALTON FOLLOWED 1988. IN BETWEEN, THEY LNCHED THE QUTSENTIAL 80S CLUB, THE PALLADIUM. THE PARAMOUNT WAS UNR NSTCTN WHEN RUBELL DIED, AT AGE 45, OF LIVER AILMENTS PROBABLY ED BY AIDS, 1989.RUBELL AND SCHRAGER MET 1964 AT SYRACE UNIVERSY. RUBELL WAS A SENR HISTORY MAJOR, CHARGE OF SEATG THE MOST IMPORTANT MP SOCIAL EVENTS, THE SATURDAY-AFTERNOON FOOTBALL GAM. SCHRAGER WAS A HMAN ENOMICS MAJOR, AND WOULD GO ON TO BE ELECTED PRINT OF SIGMA ALPHA MU ATERNY, TO WHICH THEY BOTH BELONGED. “WE WERE DATG THE SAME GIRL,” HE RELLS. “AND OM THE WAY WE WENT ABOUT PETG FOR HER, WE ME TO RPECT AND LIKE EACH OTHER. AND THE IENDSHIP JT GOT CLOSER AND CLOSER AND CLOSER. I WOULD SAY THAT OM THE END OF 1964 UNTIL STEVE DIED 1989 I SPOKE TO HIM EVERY SGLE DAY. A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WENT TO SYRACE WERE OM WTCHTER AND THE FIVE TOWNS OF LONG ISLAND, AND STEVE AND I WERE BOTH OM BROOKLYN—WE GREW UP WH WALKG DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER EAST FLATBH. SO WE HAD THE SAME MIDDLE-CLASS BACKGROUND AND VALU.”RUBELL’S FATHER WAS A POSTAL WORKER, HIS MOTHER A HIGH-SCHOOL LAT TEACHER; THEIR FATHERS WERE BOTH POOR RABBIS WHO HAD FLED THE POGROMS RSIA. RUBELL WENT TO SYRACE ON A PARTIAL TENNIS SCHOLARSHIP, WORKED THE STUNT FETERIA, AND LIVERED PIZZAS FOR $9 A NIGHT. HE AND SCHRAGER WERE AT SYRACE TOGETHER FOR THREE YEARS, BEE RUBELL STAYED ON TO GET A MASTER’S FANCE. SCHRAGER, WHO WAS ALSO OM A STGGLG JEWISH FAY, WORKED AS A DISHWASHER, BBOY, AND WAER AT A LOL RTRANT. DURG HIS JUNR YEAR, HIS FATHER DIED, STG A SHADOW ON THE FAY REPUTATN WHEN A FLORIDA NEWSPAPER RAN AN OBUARY LKG HIM TO ILLIC GAMBLG TERTS, AND LEAVG HIS SON WH A DISTRGHT MOTHER WHO WOULD DIE A FEW YEARS LATER, A DIVORCED AND MENTALLY UNSTABLE SISTER, A NIECE WH CYSTIC FIBROSIS, AND A BROTHER JUNR HIGH. AFTER GRADUATG OM SYRACE 1968, SCHRAGER EARNED A LAW GREE OM ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSY QUEENS 1971, PRACTICED BS LAW AT A MANHATTAN FIRM FOR THREE YEARS, AND THEN WENT OUT ON HIS OWN 1974. HIS FIRST CLIENT: STEVE RUBELL.RUBELL HAD LEFT SYRACE 1967, SERVED AN TELLIGENCE UN OF THE ARMY RERV, AND SPENT A YEAR THE BACK OFFICE OF A WALL STREET BROKERAGE HOE, WHERE HE BEME SO BORED THAT HE TALKED HIS FATHER TO SHG A $15,000 WAR BOND AND LETTG HIM OPEN A SIRLO-AND-SALAD RTRANT ROCKVILLE CENTRE, LONG ISLAND. BY 1974 HE OWNED 13 STEAK LOFTS NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, AND FLORIDA, AS WELL AS PART TERT TWO DISTHEQU—15 LANDSDOWNE BOSTON AND THE ENCHANTED GARN DOUGLASTON, QUEENS—WH CLUB OPERATOR JOHN ADDISON. ONE NIGHT RUBELL TOOK HIS NEW LAWYER TO LE JARD, THE JEWEL OF ADDISON’S BOOMG DIS EMPIRE. LOTED THE TARTED-UP BASEMENT OF A SEEDY TIM SQUARE HOTEL, LE JARD, AS BRAD GOOCH HAS WRTEN, “WAS THE FIRST GAY DIS TO TRANSCEND SELF.”SCHRAGER SAYS, “THAT WAS THE PLACE THAT HAD THE BIGGT IMPACT ON STEVE AND ME. YOU ULD ABSOLUTELY CUT THE ELECTRICY THE AIR. FOR LACK OF A BETTER TERM, WAS LIKE A SODOM AND GOMORRAH. THERE WAS ENZY ON THE DANCE FLOOR, THE MIC WAS REVERBERATG AROUND THE ROOM, THEY HAD LIGHTG EFFECTS, AND WAS LIKE—BOY!—OVERWHELMG. SEX THE BATHROOM—ALL OF THAT WAS GOG ON. AND NO MATTER HOW HARD JOHN ADDISON TRIED TO KEEP STRAIGHT PEOPLE OUT, HE ULDN’T. . . . I REMEMBER SEEG BIAN JAGGER THERE—THE FIRST TIME I EVER SAW HER. SHE WAS SO BETIFUL. THE ROLLG STON HAD A PARTY THERE DURG THEIR 1975 TOUR. IF MICK JAGGER ME TO YOUR CLUB, THAT WAS ALL YOU NEED. OR ANDY WARHOL. WHEN ANDY WARHOL WENT TO A CLUB, WAS LIKE THE GOOD HOEKEEPG SEAL OF APPROVAL.”LATER THAT YEAR MRICE BRAHMS, A OF ADDISON’S, OPENED INFY, A HUGE DANCE HALL ON LOWER BROADWAY, AND HIRED PEVIAN P.R. SORCERS CARMEN D’ALS TO HOST MONTHLY PARTI. D’ALS HAD WORKED ITALY FOR THE UTURIER VALENTO, AND WAS SOUGHT AFTER BY CLUB OWNERS FOR HER MAILG LIST OF RICH YOUNG EUROPEANS, WHO HAD BEEN FLOCKG TO NEW YORK EVER GREATER NUMBERS SCE J. PL GETTY III WAS KIDNAPPED OM A ROME DIS 1973. “I DID A PARTY LLED CARMEN’S CARNIVAL FEBARY 1976,” D’ALS SAYS. “AND STEVE AND IAN SPOTTED ME FOR THE FIRST TIME—ON TOP OF THE SHOULRS OF STERLG ST. JACQU, THIS GEO SIX-FOOT-SOMETHG BLACK MALE MOL, DANCG AWAY ONE OF MY BETIFUL GRG SANT’ANGELO WHE OUTFS. SO OF URSE THEY WANTED ME FOR THE ENCHANTED GARN.” RUBELL AND SCHRAGER HAD FORMED A PARTNERSHIP TO TAKE NTROL OF THE QUEENS CLUB—A NVERTED 11-ROOM MANSN SET THE MIDDLE OF A MUNICIPAL GOLF URSE—OM ADDISON, EXCHANGE FOR RUBELL’S SHAR THE BOSTON CLUB. “WE STARTED WH A THOAND AND ONE NIGHTS PARTY,” D’ALS NTU. “WE HAD ELEPHANTS AND MELS. THE WAERS WERE DRSED UP AS ARABS. IT WAS A PRODUCTN. AND WE END UP ON THE VER OF NEWSWEEK. ”VANY FAIR SPECIAL RRPONNT MREEN ORTH, WHO WAS NEWSWEEK’S ENTERTAMENT EDOR THEN, SAYS, “I WAS ASSIGNED TO WRE A VER STORY ON DIS CULTURE, AND I ASKED MY ASSISTANT, BETSY CARTER, WHO IS NOW EDOR OF NEW WOMAN, TO CHECK OUT THIS CLUB QUEENS WE’D HEARD HAD THE GREAT THEME PARTI. STEVE RUBELL ME TO PICK HER UP A LIMOE, WH HIS MOTHER AND FATHER THE BACKSEAT. HE TOLD HER, ‘BETSY, THIS IS THE MOST EXCG NIGHT OF MY LIFE SCE MY BAR MZVAH.’”AMERI WAS ED THE THRO OF DISANIA BY 1976. ACRDG TO NEWSWEEK, SOME 8,000 DANCE PALAC HAD OPENED ACROSS THE UNTRY THE PREV TWO YEARS. BARRY WHE, DONNA SUMMER, AND GLORIA GAYNOR LED THE RAD. AFTER VIETNAM, WATERGATE, AND A EP, LGERG RECSN, AMERINS, SEEMED, JT WANTED TO GO OUT AND BOOGIE. IN NEW YORK, WHERE THE FANCIAL SUATN WAS SO BAD THAT THE CY HAD FLTED ON S BONDS 1975, THE HUNGER FOR FUN WAS ALL THE MORE SATIABLE. LEADG THE SH TO THE CLUBS WAS A TERIE OF FASHN SIGNERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND ILLTRATORS, CLUDG HALSTON, FERNANDO SANCHEZ, FRANC SVULLO, BILL KG, ARA GALLANT, AND ANTON LOPEZ, AND THE GLAMOUR GIRLS WHO SWIRLED AROUND THEM—PALOMA PISSO, ANJELI HTON, JERRY HALL, PAT CLEVELAND, APPOLLONIA VON RAVENSTE, BARBARA ALLEN, LREN HUTTON, JANICE DICKENSON, IMAN. ANDY WARHOL AND HIS CREW OM INTERVIEW MAGAZE, OF WHICH I WAS EDOR, WERE VERY MUCH PART OF THIS GROUP. TRANSATLANTIC VISS OM YV SAT LRENT AND VALENTO, WH THEIR STARRY ENTOURAG—LOULOU LA FALAISE, PIERRE BERGé, MARISA BERENSON, HELMUT BERGER, FLORDA BOLKAN, MARA CIGNA, GIANRLO GIAMMETTI—MEANT NIGHTLY DNERS AT PEARL’S AND ELAE’S, FOLLOWED BY DANCG TO THE SMALL HOURS. IN 1976 THIS CROWD UALLY ULD BE FOUND AT HURRAH, A THROBBG, MIRRORED PLAYROOM ON WT 62ND STREET N BY ARTHUR WESTE, A FORMER LE JARD WAER WHO DATED JSI LANGE. SO ULD CARMEN D’ALS, TRODUCG STEVE RUBELL AROUND THE ROOM.AMONG THE HURRAH REGULARS WAS THE SWEDISH MALE MOL UVA HARN, WHO WAS MARRIED TO THE ACTRS BARBARA CARRERA (“THE OTHER NIRAGUAN,” AS PALS OF HER RIVAL, BIAN JAGGER, LLED HER). HARN HAD PLANS TO OPEN A CLUB OF HIS OWN, A BOARD-UP BUILDG AT 254 WT 54TH STREET, WHICH, FOR SOME ODD REASON, HAD BEEN LLED STUD 52 WHEN CBS ED TO TAPE WHAT’S MY LE? AND THE $64,000 QUTN. HARN HAD LED UP FRANK LLOYD, THE HEAD OF THE MARLBOROUGH GALLERY, AS HIS BACKER, AND ASKED CARMEN D’ALS TO WORK WH THEM. BUT MARLBOROUGH LOST A URT SE TO THE HEIRS OF THE MARK ROTHKO TATE, AND, AS D’ALS EXPLAS, “FRANK LLOYD ELOPED TO THE BAHAMAS AND WE WERE LEFT WH THE PROJECT. UVA TOLD ME, ‘WE NEED BACKERS!’ SO I SAID TO STEVE AND IAN, ‘WHAT ABOUT G TO THE BIG APPLE ONCE AND FOR ALL?’ THEY ME, THEY SAW THE SPACE, THEY LOVED .”RUBELL AND SCHRAGER PAID HARN A FR’S FEE AND FOUND A NEW BACKER: JACK DHEY, A BROOKLYN DISUNT-STORE OWNER WHO HAD HAD HIS SON’S BAR MZVAH AT THE ENCHANTED GARN. RUBELL, SCHRAGER, AND DHEY EACH TOOK A ONE-THIRD TERT THE BROADWAY CATERG CORPORATN, WHICH THEY FORMED TO LEASE THE BUILDG. DHEY PUT UP ALMOST $500,000 SH FOR THE SIX-WEEK CRASH NSTCTN JOB WHICH TRANSFORMED STUD 52 TO STUD 54. SCHRAGER, WHO SUPERVISED THE SIGN, SAYS, “EVERYONE WHO WORKED ON STUD 54 HAD NEVER WORKED ON A NIGHTCLUB BEFORE, EXCEPT FOR THE SOUND GUY. THAT GUARANTEED A H APPROACH. THE ARCHECTS, RON DOWD AND STT BROMLEY, HAD DONE THE WPA RTRANT SOHO. THE LIGHTG WAS BY JUL FISHER AND PL MARANTZ, WHO HAD DONE THE BROADWAY SHOW CHIGO. IT WAS THEIR IA TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE THEATRIL RIGS WE HAD SO WE ULD HAVE MOVG AND CHANGG SCENERY. THE SOUND WAS BY RICHARD LONG, WHO DID MOST OF THE GAY DISS TOWN. WE HAD HUGE BASS SPEAKERS ON THE FLOOR SO YOU ULD ACTUALLY FEEL THE MIC, AND TWEETER ARRAYS HANGG OM THE CEILG. THE IA WAS TO NSTANTLY ASSLT THE SENS. FOR OUR LOGO, WE WENT TO THE GRAPHIC SIGNER OF TIME MAGAZE, GIL LSER, WHO HAD DONE THE AWARD-WNG POSTER FOR EQU. HE DID OUR OPENG-NIGHT VATN TOO, WHICH WAS A BIG POSTER OF THE LOGO, VG YOU TO THE ‘PREMIERE’ OF STUD 54—‘DRS SPECTACULAR.’”CLDIA COHEN, THEN A “PAGE SIX” REPORTER FOR THE NEW YORK POST, RELLS CHECKG THE CLUB OUT SHORTLY BEFORE S OPENG: “IT WAS A TOTAL NSTCTN SE. IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE A PLACE THAT WAS GOG TO OPEN 8 TO 10 DAYS. ALL OF A SUDN THIS LIFE FORCE—STEVE RUBELL—BURST TO THE ROOM. ‘HIYA, HIYA, HOW YA DO’? LET ME SHOW YOU THE PLACE.’ I THOUGHT WAS THE CRAZIT THG I’D EVER HEARD, OPENG A NIGHTCLUB THAT LOTN. BUT I WAS SO IMPRSED BY HIS NFINCE THAT I LEFT MY DOUBTS ABOUT S SUCCS OUT OF WHAT I WROTE. STEVE GAVE ME A RI BACK TO THE NEWSPAPER. HE TOLD ME HIS ENTIRE LIFE STORY ALL THE WAY DOWN TO SOUTH STREET. SO I WENT TO THE OPENG. IT WAS LIKE THE DAY OF THE LOCT. BUT I GOT , AND WAS DONE TIME, AND WAS FABULO.”SO MANY PEOPLE TURNED OUT FOR THE OPENG, WHICH WAS HOSTED BY FCCI, THE TRENDY ITALIAN EMPORIUM ON EAST 59TH STREET KNOWN FOR S SKTIGHT, NEON-LORED DIS FASHNS, THAT CARMEN D’ALS, WHO ANIZED , “HAD TO BE TAPULTED OVER THE CROWD. MY MOTHER, WHO ME OM LIMA, HAD TO BE THROWN . LTER PERSKY TOLD ME THAT HE ME WH JACK NICHOLSON AND THEY ULDN’T GET . IT WAS MASS, MASS NFN.”“I REMEMBER STEVE LLG ME THAT NEXT MORNG,” IAN SCHRAGER SAYS. “AND WE ULDN’T BELIEVE : THERE WAS A PICTURE OF CHER AT THE OPENG ON THE ONT PAGE OF THE NEW YORK POST. I REMEMBER LIKE WAS TODAY. CHER WAS WEARG A T-SHIRT WH SPENRS, A PAIR OF JEANS, AND A STRAW HAT. THE ONT PAGE. THE WHOLE PAGE. NO NIGHTCLUB UP TO THEN HAD DONE THAT.“THAT WAS THE END OF APRIL, AND THEN BIAN’S PARTY WAS MAY. JOE EULA, THE FASHN ILLTRATOR, LLED AND ASKED IF WE WOULD OPEN ON A MONDAY NIGHT—WE WERE DARK MONDAYS, LIKE THE THEATER—FOR A SPECIAL PARTY HALSTON WANTED TO GIVE FOR BIAN’S BIRTHDAY. HE ONLY HAD ABOUT 150 PEOPLE. THE BT PEOPLE, OM BARYSHNIKOV TO JACQUELE BISSET.” AROUND MIDNIGHT, OM BEHD A CURTA AT THE REAR OF THE DANCE FLOOR, STERLG ST. JACQU EMERGED, HIS BODY GLISTENG WH SILVER GLTER. HE WAS LEADG A WHE PONY BEARG A SILVERED LADY GODIVA. FLASH WENT OFF AS BIAN TOOK GODIVA’S PLACE ON THE PONY. HER PICTURE PUT STUD 54 ON ONT PAG ALL OVER THE WORLD. MICK JAGGER WAS AT THE PARTY, OF URSE. SO WAS ANDY WARHOL.ONE OF THE MANY WONRS OF STUD 54 WAS THE SPACE SELF. REMARKABLY, NEVER FELT OVERCROWD, EVEN WHEN WAS FULL TO S PACY OF 2,000 PEOPLE. A LONG, WI, DARK ENTRANCE HALL, S RPETED FLOOR CLG UPWARD, LED TO THE BIG ROUND BAR, WH PLENTY OF ROOM AROUND TO CLTER AND CIRCULATE. BEYOND THAT WAS THE 11,000-SQUARE-FOOT DANCE FLOOR WH S 85-FOOT-HIGH CEILG. A STAIRSE OFF THE ENTRANCE HALL LED TO THE PLH MEZZANE LOUNGE, A SEND BAR, AND THE BROAD, CURVG BALNY WH S RISG ROWS OF MAROON VELVET THEATER SEATS, OM WHICH YOU ULD WATCH THE DANCERS BELOW OR, HIGHER UP, HI OUT. “EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY WAS TURNED TO A PARTY ROOM,” SAYS 54 BBOY RICHARD NOTAR, WHO IS NOW THE GENERAL MANAGER OF THE RTRANT NOBU TRIBE. “EVEN THE ROOM WHERE THE GUYS WHO CLEANED UP KEPT THEIR BROOMS HAD A SOFA . YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE THE THGS THOSE GUYS ED TO FD: JEWELS, PILLS, MONEY, SHMERE SRV, A MERA WH AN OUNCE OF KE .”THE WELL-BUILT YOUNG BARTENRS AND BBOYS WORE GYM SHORTS AND SNEAKERS, AND DANCED AS THEY MA AND SERVED DRKS. “IT WAS VISCERAL ENTERTAMENT,” SAYS SCHRAGER. “THEY WERE ALL PART OF THE SHOW.” ACRDG TO NOTAR, THEY WORKED HARD, “BUT WAS SO MUCH FUN. I’D JUMP A LIMOE MY SHORTS AND A LEATHER JACKET AND GO TO P. J. CLARKE’S AND GET 30 OR 40 HAMBURGERS TO GO—WHATEVER TOOK TO MAKE THE PARTY. I PLAYED PBALL WH CHIP CARTER, THE PRINT’S SON. WE HAD THE PBALL MACH OM THE ELTON JOHN PARTY THAT WE’D PUT THE BASEMENT. ONCE, MARGARET T LLED ME AT MY PARENTS’ HOE AT FOUR THE MORNG. THE PRIME MISTER’S WIFE! VAS GELAIS, WHO HAD A BETIFUL BANANA-LORED ROLLS-ROYCE, DROVE ME HOME TO QUEENS A UPLE OF TIM. CATHERE GUNS WENT AS ME, SHORTS AND NO SHIRT, WHEN HALSTON HAD THAT DRAG PARTY.”THE GREATT WONR OF ALL WAS STEVE RUBELL WORKG THE DOOR. FROM 11:30 UNTIL 1, HE WOULD STAND ON A STEP STOOL ABOVE THE CROWD, CHOOSG WHO WOULD MAKE BEYOND THE VELVET ROPE, WHICH THEY HAD PUT UP ORIGALLY TO KEEP OUT THE EIGHTH AVENUE RELICTS WHO WERE WANRG TO THE FOYER TO WARM UP. “PEOPLE GOT SO PISSED AT THE DOOR POLICY BEE SMACKED OF ELISM,” SAYS SCHRAGER, “BUT HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHG TO DO WH RACE, CREED, LOR, OR RELIGN. IT WAS JT EXERCISG THE SAME DISCRETN YOU’D E WHEN YOU HAVE A PARTY YOUR HOME.”“IT’S LIKE MIXG A SALAD,” RUBELL ED TO SAY, “OR STG A PLAY. IF GETS TOO STRAIGHT, THEN THERE’S NOT ENOUGH ENERGY THE ROOM. IF GETS TOO GAY, THEN THERE’S NO GLAMOUR. WE WANT TO BE BISEXUAL. VERY, VERY, VERY BISEXUAL.” AN SIR ELABORAT: “STEVE HAD CERTA CRERIA. HE WANTED THE MOST FAMO, GLAMORO, RICH, BETIFUL, AND TERTG PEOPLE. HE ED TO JOKE, ‘IF I WASN’T THE OWNER, I WOULDN’T BE ALLOWED .’” AMONG THOSE WHO WERE EXCLUD, AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, WERE FRANK SATRA, THE PRINT OF CYPS, THE KG OF SDI ARABIA’S SON, ROBERTA FLACK, AND SEVERAL YOUNG KENNEDYS, WHO THEN FECTED TO XENON, 54’S PETOR ON WT 43RD STREET.TO A LARGE GREE, THE DOOR POLICY MA STUD 54. “IT CREATED AN EXHILARATG MONALY,” SAYS PL WILMOT, NOW A CONDé NAST VICE PRINT, THEN AN EXECUTIVE AT HALSTON FRAGRANC. “THE FEELG WAS: WE’RE ALL HERE TOGETHER, AND WE’RE ALL REALLY OL BEE WE’RE HERE.”AL CORLEY SAYS, “YOU FELT LIKE WAS A SAFE PLACE TO DROP YOUR GUARD. I ULD KISS A GUY, I ULD KISS A GIRL—’S O.K. BY EVERYBODY HERE, BY GUYS SUS AND GUYS DRS, GIRLS SHORTS AND LADI GOWNS. IT WAS ABOUT THE FANTASI OF EVERYONE THERE. STUD 54 REALLY WAS A THEME PARK FOR ADULTS.”MOST POPULARJENNA ORTEGA REILS AT JOHNNY DEPP DATG RUMORS BY EVE BATEYDONALD TMP SPENDS LABOR DAY WEEKEND PLANNG A REVENGE TOURBY JACK MCCORDICKCHRIS ROCK AND JOEL KNAMAN FLEE BURNG MAN FTIVAL IN WAKE OF FLOODG, DEATHBY EVE BATEY“STUD 54 WAS THE GREAT LEVELER,” ADDS PARK AVENUE HOSTS NAN KEMPNER. “AND NO MATTER HOW TIRED YOU WERE, YOU’D BE THERE FOR FIVE MUT AND YOU’D FEEL REALLY MARVELO. THE MIC GOT TO YOU, AND THE FACT THAT EVERYBODY SEEMED TO BE HAPPY AND JOLLY. ALTHOUGH I DID HAVE THAT UNPLEASANT TMAN CAPOTE NIGHT THERE. HE WAS ALL SET TO GO BAM, BAM, BAM MY FACE. THIS VILE LTLE MAN. A FEW NIGHTS LATER, HALSTON HAD A PARTY THE OLYMPIC TOWER, AND TMAN ME UP TO ME AND SAID, ‘I’M SO SORRY, BUT WHEN I GET SMASHED, I LOOK AT YOU AND SEE JERRY ZIPK.’ I SAID, “THAT’S THE MOST UNFLATTERG THG ANYBODY’S EVER SAID TO ME.’” THAT WAS THE CLOST THG TO A BARROOM BRAWL AT STUD 54, AND I WAS THE ONE WHO STOPPED THE TY TERROR OM STRIKG THE SOCIAL X-RAY, A HEROIC ACT FOR WHICH LIZ SMH LLED ME “THE SAT FRANCIS OF ASSISI OF THE SILLY SOCIALE SET.”AT ONE, WHEN STEVE RUBELL ME TO THE CLUB AND PLAYED HOST, IAN SCHRAGER UALLY WENT HOME TO HIS GIRLIEND, THOSE DAYS THE SIGNER NORMA KAMALI, AFTER MAKG SURE THAT EVERYTHG WAS NNG SMOOTHLY. SCHRAGER WAS THE TROVERT WHO MA THGS WORK. HE DIDN’T HANG OUT WH THE STARS. THEY GOT TO KNOW HIM WHEN HE PLANNED PARTI FOR THEM. “I WANTED TO GIVE A CIRC PARTY FOR VALENTO’S BIRTHDAY,” SAYS VALENTO’S BS PARTNER, GIANRLO GIAMMETTI. “IAN PUT TOGETHER THREE DAYS. WE HAD A CIRC RG WH SAND, AND MERMAIDS ON TRAPEZ. FELLI GAVE STUM OM HIS FILM THE CLOWNS. VALENTO WAS THE RGMASTER, AND MARA SCHIANO ME AS A PALM REAR WH A PARROT ON HER SHOULR.”SCHRAGER TOLD ME THAT THE PARTI WERE “PROMOTNAL MARKETG TOOLS. WE SOLICED PEOPLE; THEY DIDN’T SOLIC . WE SPENT ANYWHERE OM $2,500 UP TO $100,000 FOR THE HALLOWEEN PARTI, WHICH WERE MY FAVOR.” SCHRAGER ALSO PUT TOGETHER, WH SUPERFLORIST RENNY REYNOLDS, EXTRAVAGANZAS ON NEW YEAR’S EVE (THE FIRST ONE FEATURED A PERFORMANCE BY GRACE JON WH A BEVY OF BOYS ON LEASH), VALENTE’S DAY (FOR ONE, 54 WAS TURNED TO A GARN PLETE WH SOD, FLOWER BEDS, AND PICKET FENCG), AND OSR NIGHT (“I REMEMBER ORRG A TCKLOAD OF POPRN,” SAYS REYNOLDS). BIAN JAGGER’S 1978 BIRTHDAY BASH WAS A “BABY PARTY,” WH ICE-CREAM-NE VAS, BOWLS OF CRACKER JACKS, AND BBOYS DIAPERS. FOR RUBELL’S BIRTHDAY THAT DECEMBER, BIAN POPPED OUT OF THE BIRTHDAY KE AND WAS NEARLY SUFFOTED A BLIZZARD OF PLASTIC SNOW. THE PARTY ALANA HATON GAVE FOR MERCES HEIR MICK FLICK FEATURED A MERCES WRAPPED GOLD LAMé. A BRIGA OF HELL’S ANGELS ON HARLEYS ROARED ONTO THE DANCE FLOOR FOR CARMEN D’ALS’S BIRTHDAY PARTY. KARL LAGERFELD HAD A NDLEL 18TH-CENTURY PARTY WH THE BBOYS URT DRS AND POWRED WIGS AND, JT TO TWIST THGS UP, A LIVE REGGAE NCERT AT THREE THE MORNG. ARMANI LED THE ENTRANCE HALL WH CLASSIL VLISTS WHE TIE; HIS TWIST WAS A PERFORMANCE BY THE TRANSVTE BALLET TRORO MONTE CARLO. THE MOST AMAZG PARTY OF ALL WAS FOR ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S BIRTHDAY 1978. THE ROCKETT PERFORMED AND THEN PRENTED THE MOVIE STAR, WHO WAS STANDG ON A FLOAT OF GARNIAS BETWEEN HALSTON AND HER THEN HBAND, SENATOR JOHN WARNER OF VIRGIA, WH A KE THAT WAS A FULL-SIZE PORTRA OF HER. AS TAYLOR GAMELY CUT A GOOD-LUCK SLICE OM THE BUTTERCREAM BOSOM, WARNER FLED THE PAPARAZZI.ON ANY GIVEN NIGHT AT STUD 54, ONE ULD FD DIANA ROSS, FRAN LEBOWZ, AND FARRAH FAWCETT ON THE DANCE FLOOR, JOHN MCENROE, ILIE NASTASE, AND CHERYL TIEGS AT THE BAR, LYNN WYATT, SãO SCHLUMBERGER, AND KENNY JAY LANE ON A BANQUETTE, BARRY DILLER, CALV KLE, AND DAVID GEFFEN AGAST THE BACK WALL, ROD STEWART, PETER FRAMPTON, AND RYAN O’NEAL UP THE BALNY, PETER BEARD THE LADI’ ROOM, DEBBIE HARRY THE MEN’S ROOM, AND A TEENAGE MICHAEL JACKSON THE D.J. BOOTH, PLAYG WH THE LIGHTS AND SOUND. “IT WAS SO EXCG I SOMETIM HAD TO TAKE A TRANQUILIZER,” SAYS BEREGARD HOTON-MONTGOMERY. “YOU SAW SO MANY CELEBRI. THE WAS: YOU DIDN’T SPEAK TO THEM, BUT VERY OFTEN THEY SPOKE TO YOU. I DON’T THK ANY STALKERS GOT TO 54. STEVE RUBELL WAS THE STALKER.”“STEVE WOULD SEE HIS IENDS A E AWAY,” SAYS A STAR WHO WAS A REGULAR. “HE WOULD WHISK YOU , PUT A QUAALU YOUR HAND, GIVE YOU A DRK, AND GIVE YOU A BARTENR TOO. THERE WAS A GREAT AL OF SEXUAL TENSN ALL THE TIME. AND THERE WAS SEX GOG ON— THE BALNY, ON THE FIRE P, DOWN THE BASEMENT.”THE BASEMENT OF 54, A WARREN OF STORAGE AREAS NNECTED BY ZIGZAGGG PASSAGEWAYS, HAS BEE FAMO AS A KD OF IASTIC NER SANCTUM. AS EDOR OF INTERVIEW, WHICH WAS OFTEN CRICIZED AS BEG THE HOE AN OF 54, I WAS THE RARE JOURNALIST ALLOWED DOWNSTAIRS. WHILE WAS EASY ENOUGH TO BUY A GRAM OF E THERE, MOSTLY THE -CROWD SAT AROUND TALKG THE NIGHT AWAY WHILE BBOYS RAN AND OUT WH BOTTL OF STOLICHNAYA. THE BASEMENT’S HIGH POT OCCURRED AFTER THE LNCH PARTY OF YV SAT LRENT’S OPIUM PERFUME, WHEN THE TRIUMPHANT FRENCH SIGNER ENTERED ONE OF THE CYCLONE-FENCED STORAGE BS AND WAS GREETED BY HALSTON, WHO GRANDLY KISSED HIM ON BOTH CHEEKS. “YOU HAVE JT WNSED ONE OF THE GREAT MOMENTS THE HISTORY OF FASHN,” CLARED TMAN CAPOTE. “IF YOU RE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF FASHN.”THE FIRST TIME THE BASEMENT WAS EVER ED WAS AS A “REHEARSAL SPACE” FOR LIZA MNELLI, BIAN JAGGER, HALSTON, AND WARHOL, WHO WERE PUTTG ON “AN ACT” FOR THE FIRST-ANNIVERSARY PARTY, APRIL 1978. “IT WAS LIKE SPANKY AND OUR GANG—LET’S DO A SHOW,” SCHRAGER REMISC. “EXCEPT STEAD OF ALFALFA AND SPANKY, WAS STEVE AND ME. THAT WAS THE UNRLYG SPIR OF 54. THERE WAS AN NOCENCE ABOUT , A SPONTANEY. IT GOT RPTED, UNFORTUNATELY.”HOTON-MONTGOMERY RELLS A HNTG SCENE: “IT WAS FIVE A.M. STEVE, HALSTON, BIAN, AND ELSA PERETTI WERE STILL THERE. STEVE GRABBED BIAN TO DANCE. HE WAS FALLG ALL OVER HER. FALLY ELSA PERETTI STOOD UP AND TANGOED BIAN AWAY, AND A HUNKY BARTENR HAD TO HELP STEVE OFF THE DANCE FLOOR.”“I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN TALK ABOUT STUD 54,” BIAN JAGGER TOLD ME WHEN I APPROACHED HER ABOUT THIS STORY. “I WISH NEVER EXISTED.”ON DECEMBER 14, 1978, SOME 30 I.R.S. AGENTS ENTERED STUD 54, APPREHEND IAN SCHRAGER, AND SEIZED GARBAGE BAGS FULL OF SH OM THE BASEMENT, FANCIAL RERDS HIDN BEHD CEILG PANELS, AND FIVE OUNC OF E. RUBELL WAS ALSO ARRTED THAT DAY. THE CLUB WAS THOUGHT TO BE TAKG $70,000 A NIGHT, AND THE OWNERS WERE ACCED OF SKIMMG $2.5 LN. SCHRAGER AND RUBELL WERE RELEASED THE NEXT MORNG ON $50,000 BAIL EACH, WORKED OUT BY THEIR LAWYER, ROY COHN. ON JUNE 28, 1979, A GRAND JURY DICTED THEM AND JACK DHEY ON 12 UNTS, CLUDG D AND TAX EVASN. THEY PLEAD NOT GUILTY. AND THEN RUBELL MA HEADL BY ACCG PRINT CARTER’S WHE HOE CHIEF OF STAFF, HATON JORDAN, OF G E THE BASEMENT OF 54 APRIL 1978.“ULTIMATELY, STEVE BEME PLETELY MAD WH HIS POWER,” SAYS A CLOSE IEND. “HE LOST HIS MD. HE THOUGHT HE WAS ABOVE THE LAW. THE DGS—THE QUAALUS—HAD A LOT TO DO WH . HE WAS PLETELY OUT OF TOUCH WH REALY.”MEANWHILE, AS ROY COHN NEGOTIATED A PLEA BARGA, THE PARTY AT STUD 54 WENT ON AND ON AND ON. THAT SEPTEMBER, RUBELL AND SCHRAGER UNVEILED A LN-DOLLAR EXPANSN, CLUDG A THIRD FLOOR WH A LAVISH NEW BAR AND A MOVG BRIDGE WHICH SWEPT ABOVE THE DANCE FLOOR. IN NOVEMBER, AFTER DHEY TURNED STATE’S EVINCE AGAST THEM, RUBELL AND SCHRAGER PLEAD GUILTY TO TWO UNTS OF RPORATE AND PERSONAL E-TAX EVASN, AND JANUARY 1980 THEY WERE SENTENCED TO THREE AND A HALF YEARS. LIZA MNELLI SANG “NEW YORK, NEW YORK” AT THEIR FAREWELL PARTY. AFTER SERVG ONE YEAR—SIX MONTHS “THE TOMBS” MANHATTAN AND SIX MONTHS A MIMUM-SECURY PRISON ALABAMA—THEY PROVID RMATN LEADG TO THE NVICTN OF FOUR OTHER NEW YORK CLUB OWNERS, CLUDG MRICE BRAHMS, AND WERE PAROLED TO NEW YORK’S PHOENIX HOE.“SO WE HAD AN ENFORCED TERLU OUR LIV,” SAYS SCHRAGER. “THANK GOD WE WERE TOGETHER AND WERE ABLE TO KEEP OUR ZT FOR LIFE. STEVE WAS LIKE THE MAYOR OF JAIL, THE SAME WAY HE WAS THE MAYOR OF STUD 54. IT WAS THERE THAT WE CID WE WANTED TO GO TO THE HOTEL BS. BEE WE SUFFERED SOMETHG MOST PEOPLE DON’T WHEN THEY MAKE A MISTAKE LIKE WE DID: WE ULDN’T GO BACK TO THE BS WE KNEW. WE DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHG WHEN WE GOT OUT. I REMEMBER CALV KLE OFFERG TO GIVE A BLANK CHECK, WHICH OF URSE WE DIDN’T TAKE.”WHILE THEY WERE PRISON, STUD 54 WAS BOUGHT BY HOTEL OWNER MARK FLEISCHMAN, WHO RAN WH CARMEN D’ALS, SCHRAGER’S RIGHT HAND MICHAEL OVERGTON, AND MARC BENECKE, THE DOORMAN RUBELL HAD TRAED, WHO LATER WENT ON TO N BAR ONE WT HOLLYWOOD. BUT WAS NEVER QUE THE SAME, EVEN AFTER THEIR RELEASE, WHEN THEY HELPED FLEISCHMAN ON EVENTS SUCH AS MARCI KLE’S SWEET-16 PARTY. IT CLOSED 1983. RUBELL AND SCHRAGER TOOK OVER FLEISCHMAN’S EXECUTIVE HOTEL ON MADISON AVENUE AT 38TH STREET EXCHANGE FOR NOT HE OWED THEM. THEY HIRED ANDRéE PUTMAN, THE AVANT-GAR PARISIAN SIGNER, TO TURN TO MANS, NEW YORK’S FIRST BOUTIQUE HOTEL, AND HELD STG LLS FOR DOORMEN AND BELLHOPS. BIAN JAGGER MOVED TO A PENTHOE SUE, AND ACROSS THE HALL, RUBELL TOLD IENDS, CHER’S VISORS CLUD TOM CISE AND VAL KILMER. MANS TURNED A PROF S FIRST YEAR, WH A 96 PERCENT OCCUPANCY RATE.THE $10 LN PALLADIUM OPENED 1985, BUT RUBELL AND SCHRAGER WERE HIGH-PAID NSULTANTS RATHER THAN OWNERS, BEE AS NVICTED FELONS THEY ULDN’T GET A LIQUOR LICENSE. THEY WERE NOW MUCH MORE FOCED ON THE HOTEL BS. THEY BOUGHT A RAMBLG MANSN ON THE OCEAN SOUTHAMPTON AND BEGAN DATG TWO EMPLOYE OF CAROLA HERRERA’S. SCHRAGER BEME ENGAGED TO HERRERA’S HEAD OF PUBLIC RELATNS, DEBORAH HUGH, AND RUBELL STARTED LIVG WH BILL HATON, HERRERA’S SIGN ASSOCIATE.“STEVE HAD NEVER HAD A LONG-TERM RELATNSHIP BEFORE,” SAYS HATON. “BUT THEN, HE NEVER EXPECTED TO LIVE LONG. SOMEBODY WHO GO AT HIS PACE, AND CREATED SOMETHG THAT BIG, WELL, YOUR BODY AND MD JT N’T DO FOR A LONG TIME. HE ALWAYS TOLD ME HE’D RATHER DO WHAT HE WANTED AND LIVE LS THAN DO NOTHG AND LIVE TO 75.”I VISED HATON THE WT 55TH STREET APARTMENT HE SHARED WH RUBELL, WHO HAD RENTED THE MID-70S. “THIS WAS STEVE’S ROOM, WHICH WAS PLETELY BLACK THEN,” HE SAID, SHOWG ME THE BEDROOM, WHICH IS NOW BLUE AND WHE AND AIRY. “EVEN THE WDOWS WERE PATED BLACK. BEE HE’D GET HOME AT SIX THE MORNG, AND THE ONLY TIME HE ULD SLEEP WAS DURG THE DAY. THE BATHROOM WAS VERED GOLD FOIL, AND THE KCHEN WAS ALL MIRRORS—THE CEILG, THE FLOOR, EVERYTHG.”IN THE LIVG ROOM, WHICH WAS ONCE LTERED WH PROPS OM STUD 54 PARTI, HATON POTED TO A PAIR OF MAHOGANY BOOKSHELV ON EHER SI OF THE WHE BRICK FIREPLACE. “I’M GOG TO SHOW YOU SOMETHG,” HE SAID. HE PROCEED TO PULL THE BOOKSHELV AWAY OM THE WALLS, WHICH ARE VERED RED FABRIC, AND THEN PRY THE WALLS THEMSELV OPEN TO REVEAL MORE SHELVG SET TO WHAT HAD ONCE BEEN WDOW AM. ON THE RIGHT SI WERE STACKS OF ACUNTG LEDGERS, GOG BACK TO RUBELL’S STEAK LOFTS AND THE ENCHANTED GARN, AND PIL OF YELLOWED PRS CLIPPGS ABOUT STUD 54. THE SHELV ON THE LEFT WERE EMPTY.“THIS IS WHERE STEVE SAID HE ED TO KEEP THE MONEY,” HATON EXPLAED. “HE TOLD ME THAT ONE DAY HE VED ANDY WARHOL OVER AND PUT A BIG PILE OF SH ON THE FFEE TABLE AND LEFT HIM ALONE FOR A UPLE OF HOURS TO PLAY WH . BEE HE KNEW HOW HAPPY THAT WOULD MAKE ANDY.”OR AS THE LATE KG OF DIS’S NEPHEW, JASON RUBELL, WHO OWNS THE GREENVIEW HOTEL MIAMI BEACH, PUT , “STEVE MA YOU FEEL SO GOOD, ALWAYS. HIS HIGH ME OFF OF YOU. HE FELT GOOD IF YOU FELT GOOD.”BOB COLACELLO
- DGS, DIS, AND A DEAD BODY: FIVE OUTRAGEO STUD 54 STORIIN HONOR OF NETFLIX’S HALSTON, A LOOK BACK AT THE FAMO 1970S NIGHTCLUB—A FAVORE HNT OF ANDY WARHOL AND CHER, WH A SNDALO HISTORY TO MATCH.BY JULIE MILLERMAY 14, 2021FROM GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEAS NETFLIX’S HALSTON REMDS , STUD 54 WAS A FEVER DREAM OF EXCS. BUT THE REAL-LIFE NIGHTCLUB—WH S GLAMORO VIP GUTS, PLENTIFUL DGS, AND BALNY SEX—WAS SOMEHOW MORE OUTRAGEO ACTUALY THAN ULD EVER BE NVEYED ONSCREEN. HALSTON, ANDY WARHOL, LIZA MNELLI, MICK JAGGER, CHER, DAVID GEFFEN, JACK NICHOLSON, AND MICHAEL JACKSON REGULARLY PACKED THE BANQUETT. SNTILY CLAD DANCERS GYRATED ON AN TOMATED BRIDGE THAT MOVED BACK AND FORTH OVER THE DANCE FLOOR. CLUB FOUNRS STEVE RUBELL AND IAN SCHRAGER PROVID PREMIUM GUTS WH PREMIUM E AND SPENT UP TO $100,000 ON A SGLE NIGHT’S PARTY R. AND SWEATY ATTEN ENGAGED ANONYMO TERURSE ON THE BALNY—WHICH WAS FAMOLY VERED BBER SO THAT ULD BE EASILY HOSED DOWN AT THE END OF EACH EVENG.ANYTHG WENT—SO MUCH SO THAT, WHEN I ASKED HALSTON BGRAPHER AND STUD 54 REGULAR STEVEN GA FOR HIS CRAZIT STORY ABOUT THE CLUB, HE OFFERED AN ANECDOTE SO RISQUé THAT WE NNOT PRT FULL HERE. (IT VOLVED BODILY FLUIDS EXPELLED PETIVELY THE STUD 54 BASEMENT. THE PRIZE: A PAID TRIP TO ST. BARTS.)“HEY,” HE SAID AFTER MY STUNNED PSE, “YOU ASKED.”“NOTHG ULD SHOCK ME ANYMORE,” ADD GA, WHOSE BOOK SIMPLY HALSTON IS THE BASIS FOR NETFLIX’S LIMED SERI STARRG EWAN MCGREGOR AS THE LATE FASHN SIGNER. “NEW YORK WAS VERY, VERY LOOSE AT THE TIME. A LOT OF STUFF WAS GOG ON NEW YORK CY THAT YOU JT ULDN’T BELIEVE. IT WAS REALLY DIFFERENT. THE FALL OF ROME, LET ME TELL YOU. STUD WAS A REFLECTN OF ALL OF THAT.”AHEAD, FIVE OUTRAGEO ANECDOT THAT PAT A PICTURE OF STUD 54 ALL OF S GRATUO GLORY.GAG ENTRY AT ALL COSTSIN HALSTON THE SIGNER LEARNS OF A PERSON WHO DIED AN AIR SHAFT WHILE TRYG TO SNEAK TO STUD 54. THE ANECDOTE SEEMGLY STEMS OM STUD 54 ASSOCIATE BAIRD JON, WHO TOLD THE LAST PARTY THOR ANTHONY HAN-GUT THIS HAD ACTUALLY HAPPENED: “THIS GUY GOT STUCK A VENT TRYG TO GET . IT SMELLED LIKE A T HAD DIED. HE WAS BLACK TIE.” JON ADD, “PEOPLE WOULD CLIMB DOWN OM THE BUILDG NEXT DOOR FULL MOUNTA-CLIMBG GEAR…TRYG TO GET TO THE URTYARD.”DOORMAN MARC BENECKE TOLD THE BBC, “AT ONE POT YOU ULD BUY MAPS WHICH CLAIMED TO SHOW HOW TO GET THROUGH TUNNELS UP OM THE SUBWAY SYSTEM. IT WAS CRAZY.”ACRDG TO STUD 54 DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER MATT TYRNER, THE CLUB OWNERS “CLEVERLY PAID DOORMAN MARC BENECKE MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE TO MAKE SURE HE WASN’T TEMPTED TO TAKE BRIB. HE SAID HE DIDN’T—BUT THAT DIDN’T MEAN PEOPLE WOULDN’T SHOVE THEIR HANDS HIS AT POCKET AND LEAVE DGS AND MONEY THERE.”ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S BIRTHDAY PARTYWRG FOR VANY FAIR, STUD 54 REGULAR BOB COLACELLO CLARED TAYLOR’S 1978 BIRTHDAY THE CLUB’S “MOST AMAZG PARTY OF ALL…THE ROCKETT PERFORMED AND THEN PRENTED THE MOVIE STAR, WHO WAS STANDG ON A FLOAT OF GARNIAS BETWEEN HALSTON AND HER THEN HBAND, SENATOR JOHN WARNER OF VIRGIA, WH A KE THAT WAS A FULL-SIZE PORTRA OF HER. AS TAYLOR GAMELY CUT A GOOD LUCK SLICE OM THE BUTTERCREAM BOSOM, WARNER FLED THE PAPARAZZI.”“A DOZEN WELL-ENDOWED HUNKS, NAKED BUT FOR SEQUED POSG-POUCH, AND SOME WH JOTS DANGLG OM THE RNERS OF THEIR MOUTHS, STTERED GARNIA PETALS THE UPLE’S PATH AS THEY ENTERED,” WROTE TAYLOR BGRAPHER DAVID BRET THE LADY, THE LOVER, THE LEGEND. “THE DANCG AND FUN NTUED UNTIL THE EARLY HOURS, THE ATMOSPHERE HEAVY WH THE STENCH OF POPPERS AND ELIZABETH BEBOPPG WH A BEVVY OF GAY PORN STARS, UNTIL WARNER PUT HIS FOOT DOWN AND SAID THAT THEY WERE LEAVG.”ANDY WARHOL ALSO WROTE A LS-THAN-FLATTERG REP OF THE SHDIG HIS JOURNAL. FROM THE ANDY WARHOL DIARI: “LIZ LOOKED LIKE A—BELLYBUTTON. LIKE A FAT LTLE KEWPIE DOLL…. DIANA VREELAND WAS THERE, AND PEOPLE WERE BEG BROUGHT OVER TO LIZ—SHE WAS THE QUEEN. I MET A QUARTERBACK. BOB WAS WATCHG BIAN [JAGGER] TAKE POPPERS AND HE SAID TO DIANA VREELAND, ‘IT REALLY BE MORE LIKE PAGAN ROME EVERY DAY,’ AND SHE SAID, ‘I SHOULD HOPE SO—ISN’T THAT WHAT WE’RE AFTER?’”THE DIS-DANCG SEPTUAGENARIANTHAT WOULD BE “DIS SALLY,” A “SPRIGHTLY THG HER LATE SEVENTI WHO DANCED LIKE A THIRTY-YEAR-OLD, AND WAS ACPANIED BY A HANDSOME YOUNG MAN NAMED JOHN ON HER ARM,” WROTE MARK FLEISCHMAN INSI STUD 54. “SHE WAS A RETIRED JEWISH LAWYER WHO BEME A JUDGE AND SUDNLY WENT CRAZY DUE TO THE BATN OF E AND THE STUD 54 EFFECT. BUT BACK THE DAY, SHE WOULD DANCE NONSTOP—OM MIDNIGHT TO 5:00 A.M. MANY NIGHTS A WEEK, TAKG ONLY BATHROOM AND E BREAKS.”AS NEW YORK MAGAZE REPORTED AT THE TIME, “A TY, 77-YEAR-OLD LAWYER NAMED SALLY LIPPMAN WAS MOURNG THE ATH OF HER HBAND WHEN SHE HAPPENED UPON THE DIS SCENE AND CHANGED HER LIFE. DRSED TIGHT PANTS AND HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS, SHE BEME DIS SALLY, A STAR AT STUD 54 AND XENON WHO’D DRAW AN DIENCE OF ADORG FANS AS SHE GOT DOWN ON THE DANCE FLOOR.”IF YOU NEED VIO EVINCE OF THE WOMAN HERSELF, BEHOLD: HERE IS DIS SALLY ALONGSI HER 25-YEAR-OLD BOYIEND-MANAGER.MOST POPULARSARA RAMIREZ ISSU STHG RPONSE TO ANTI–CHE DIAZ PROFILEBY SAVANNAH WALSHHOW LILY JAM AND JOE KEERY BEME OLD HOLLYWOOD INS FALLY DAWNBY DAVID CANFIELD25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISHOLIDAYS AT STUD 54“HALLOWEEN WAS ALWAYS THE BIGGT NIGHT OF THE YEAR, DRAWG CROWDS OF OVER 2,500,” RELLED FLEISCHMAN. “ONE YEAR, WE SPENT $50,000 TRANSFORMG THE MA ENTRANCE HALL TO A HNTED MANSN THAT CLUD LIVE MONSTERS JUMPG OUT AT OUR GUTS AS THEY MA THEIR WAY ACROSS RICKETY BRIDG THROUGH A GRAVEYARD, WHILE HOWLG AND OTHER VERY STRANGE LOUD NOIS PLAYED THE BACKGROUND.” DCRIBG ONE PARTY, FORMER MOL KEV HALEY TOLD VANY FAIR 1996, “AS YOU ME UP THE RAMP THE FOYER, YOU LOOKED THROUGH LTLE WDOWS TO LTLE BOOTHS WH MIDGETS DOG THGS. THE ONE THAT STICKS OUT MY HEAD HAD A MIDGET FAY EATG A FORMAL DNER.”AHEAD OF THANKSGIVG 1978, RUBELL ATTEMPTED AN DAC HOLIDAY EVENT FOR WHICH VALENTO FOOTED THE BILL. RUBELL “HAD THE WAERS DRSED UP LIKE PILGRIMS AND HE WAS SERVG TURKEY,” RELLED WARHOL HIS PUBLISHED DIARI. “HE SAID HE HAD TO EXPLA TO VALENTO WHY HE WAS DOG THAT WAY. HE SAID HE TOLD HIM, ‘WELL, YOU KNOW AMERI WAS DISVERED BY AN ITALIAN’…THE ONT OF STUD 54 WAS RATED LIKE THE ONT OF A BOAT. I LOST HALSTON BUT I FOUND HIM A LTLE LATER EATG A TURKEY LEG, AND HE MA ME HAVE SOME. THE LAST PLACE YOU WANT TO EAT MEAT OM IS A DISTHEQUE, BUT LATER I SAW STEVIE EATG THE TURKEY, TOO, SO I GUS WAS OKAY.”FOR CHRISTMAS, ACRDG TO INSI STUD 54, SCHRAGER PUT TOGETHER DIS-APPROPRIATE HOLIDAY GIFTS: “BAGGI OF E…EACH ONE HAD A RIBBON ON , ALONG WH RDS ADDRSED TO SUCH FAMO NAM AS CALV KLE, BIAN JAGGER, ANDY WARHOL, HALSTON, AND SO ON.”AN OVER-THE-TOP EXTHE NIGHT BEFORE RUBELL AND SCHRAGER WENT TO PRISON FOR RPORATE TAX EVASN, THE DUO THREW A PARTY AT WHICH RUBELL WORE A FRANK SATRA–STYLE FEDORA AND SERENAD THE CLUB WH “I DID IT MY WAY.” “WHEN I LOOK BACK AT NOW,” SCHRAGER SAID 2018’S STUD 54 DOCUMENTARY, “ WAS SO PREPOSTERO. WHAT WERE WE THKG?”MOST POPULARSARA RAMIREZ ISSU STHG RPONSE TO ANTI–CHE DIAZ PROFILEBY SAVANNAH WALSHHOW LILY JAM AND JOE KEERY BEME OLD HOLLYWOOD INS FALLY DAWNBY DAVID CANFIELD25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISPER THE LAST PARTY:STEVE RUBELL AND DIANA ROSS WENT UP TO NTROL CENTRAL, THE DJ BOOTH…DIANA ROSS BEGAN TO SG OUT OVER THE CROWD. “SHE WAS BLZED. TOTALLY TRASHED,” CHRIS WILLIAMSON SAYS. REALDO HERRERA, WHO WAS THERE WH CAROLA, SAYS, “IT WAS RATHER MOVG. TOUCHG. STEVE HAD THIS PASSN FOR DIANA. HE HAD EVERY SGLE SONG HIS R.”ROSS PRODD AN EVEN MORE TRASHED RUBELL TO SGG HIMSELF. HE LNCHED TO AN ENTHIASTIC RENDN OF “I DID IT MY WAY.” A B TOO ENTHIASTIC, FACT. “HE BASILLY FELL OVER THE THG AT ONE POT,” ROGER PARENTI SAYS. “WE HAD HIM BY THE ANKL. HE WAS HANGG OFF THE DJ BOOTH. HE ULD HAVE KILLED HIMSELF.”FEDS HAD PREVLY DISVERED $600,000 GARBAGE BAGS, 300 QUAALU PILLS, AND E DURG A RAID OF THE CLUB. THE DISVERI, WHICH WERE REPORTED THE PRS, DISAPPOTED STUD 54 REGULARS WARHOL AND HALSTON, BUT FOR SURPRISG REASONS. PER THE ANDY WARHOL DIARI:“HEARG HOW MUCH MONEY STEVE ACTUALLY HAD, HE ULD HAVE BEEN TREATG SO WONRFULLY. HE ULD HAVE BEEN SO GENERO AND SPENDG SO MUCH, AND HE JT WASN’T. HE DID TAKE TO LA GRENOUILLE ONCE, BUT ULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH MORE…. WHAT HALSTON’S BEEN MOST UPSET ABOUT THE STUD 54 BT IS THAT THE IRS AGENTS DISVERED ANOTHER LTLE ROOM THAT NOBODY KNEW ABOUT, AND HALSTON IS HURT BEE HE’S SUCH A CLOSE IEND AND STEVE HADN’T TOLD HIM ABOUT .”MORE GREAT STORI FROM VANY FAIR — AFTER JEN SHAH’S ARRT, HOW CAN WE KEEP ENJOYG REAL HOEWIV?— BARRY JENKS ON BRGG THE UNRGROUND RAILROAD TO TV— HOW SWIMMG WH SHARKS TRIED TO WARN US ABOUT STT RUD— QUIL LEMONS’S 2021 VANY FAIR OSR PORTRAS— ANDREW MCCARTHY ON PRETTY PK AND THE BRAT PACK— THE 2021 OSR CEREMONY WAS A NOBLE, DOOMED EXPERIMENT— ELLT PAGE FALLY FEELS “ABLE TO JT EXIST”— FROM THE ARCHIVE: THE UNSKABLE JENNIFER ANISTON— NOT A SUBSCRIBER? JO VANY FAIR TO RECEIVE FULL ACCS TO AND THE PLETE ONLE ARCHIVE NOW.JULIE MILLER
ANYTHG WENTFOR 33 MONTHS, STUD 54 WAS THE GIDDY EPICENTER OF 70S HEDONISM, A DIS HOTHOE OF BETIFUL PEOPLE, ENDLS E, AND EVERY KD OF SEX. ITS -OWNERS STEVE RUBELL AND IAN SCHRAGER KICKED OFF THE AGE OF THE ONE-NAME CELEBRY—CHER, ANDY, BIAN, HALSTON—AND RO A MIRACULO WAVE OF POWER AND PLEASURE UNTIL BROUGHT THEM CRASHG DOWN UNR CHARG OF TAX EVASN. COMG ON TWO S AFTER THE VELVET ROPE WENT UP, BOB COLACELLO REMEMBERS THE GREATT CLUB OF ALL TIME.BY BOB COLACELLOSEPTEMBER 3, 2013SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVE‘I HAD MORE FUN AT STUD 54 THAN ANY OTHER NIGHTCLUB THE WORLD,” SAYS SIGNER DIANE VON FURSTENBERG. “I WOULD HAVE DNER WH MY CHILDREN, PUT ON MY WBOY BOOTS, TAKE MY MERCES, PARK THE GARAGE NEXT DOOR, GO FOR A UPLE OF HOURS, FD SOMEONE, AND LEAVE.”“I LOVED GETTG OUT OF A B AND SEEG THOSE LONG L OF PEOPLE WHO ULDN’T GET ,” SAYS BRIGID BERL, ONE OF ANDY WARHOL’S FACTORY WORKERS. “AND I’D JT WALK , AND FELT SO GOOD—ALL THOSE PEOPLE STARG AND WAVG AND TAKG PICTUR OF EVERYONE WHO GOT , THKG IF YOU GOT YOU MT BE SOMEBODY. THE PLACE DID HAVE A FEELG OF FAY. IT WAS LIKE GOG TO ANOTHER FACTORY, BEE YOU’D SEE EVERYONE OM THE OFFICE—FRED HUGH, CATHERE GUNS, CHRIS MAKOS—EVERY NIGHT, ALL NIGHT. ANDY WOULD BE ENSNCED ON A UCH WH BIAN AND HALSTON. IF YOU MISSED A NIGHT, ANDY WOULD SAY, ‘YOU MISSED THE BT NIGHT.’ AND IF HE HADN’T BEEN THERE, HE’D BE ON THE PHONE THE FIRST THG THE MORNG, WANTG TO KNOW WHO WAS THERE.”“I ED TO GO WH TA CHOW,” SAYS PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID SEIDNER. “I REMEMBER THE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR MICHAEL CHOW THERE. THEY RE-CREATED PEKG, AND PEOPLE WERE RRIED ABOUT ON PALANQUS— WAS REALLY OVER THE TOP. IT WAS WILD. ANYTHG WENT. AND I WENT THERE WH ALL KDS OF PEOPLE, OM CLON TO SOCIAL. IT EXISTED A TIME WHEN WAS HIP TO BE GLAMORO. YOU ULD GO JEANS OR BLACK-TIE, AND IF YOU WERE BLACK-TIE YOU ULD STILL PICK UP CUTE BOYS JEANS. IT WASN’T ONLY A GAY PLACE. BUT WAS FELY A PICKUP PLACE. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, YOU’D LEAVE 54 ACPANIED.”“ONE NIGHT I WAS STANDG BY THE BAR,” SAYS FORMER DETAILS LUMNIST BEREGARD HOTON-MONTGOMERY, “CHATTG WH WAY BANDY AND HARRY KG, WHO WERE THE HOTTT HAIR AND MAKP PEOPLE THE WORLD THEN—THEY DID THE COSMO VERS WH SVULLO. AND ALL OF A SUDN THE THREE OF STOPPED GABBG AND STARED STRAIGHT AHEAD, BEE THERE WAS GENERAL MOSHE DAYAN, WH HIS EYE PATCH, TALKG TO GA LOLLABRIGIDA.”“IT FELT LIKE YOU WERE GOG TO A NEW PLACE EVERY NIGHT,” SAYS KEV HALEY, THEN A MOL, NOW A HOLLYWOOD RATOR. “AND YOU WERE, BEE THEY CHANGED ALL THE TIME FOR THE PARTI. REMEMBER THE DOLLY PARTON PARTY? IT WAS LIKE A LTLE FARM WH BAL OF HAY AND LIVE FARM ANIMALS—PIGS AND GOATS AND SHEEP. AND THE HALLOWEEN PARTY: AS YOU ME UP THE RAMP THE FOYER, YOU LOOKED THROUGH LTLE WDOWS TO LTLE BOOTHS WH MIDGETS DOG THGS. THE ONE THAT STICKS OUT MY HEAD HAD A MIDGET FAY EATG A FORMAL DNER. IT WAS LIKE A NONSTOP PARTY. THERE DIDN’T SEEM TO BE ANY GUILT THOSE DAYS. DENCE WAS A POSIVE THG. COE WAS A POSIVE THG. IT HAD NO SI EFFECTS. OR SO WE THOUGHT.”“O. J. SIMPSON MA A PASS AT ME AT STUD 54,” SAYS BARBARA ALLEN KWIATKOWSKI, A STAR BETY OF THE 70S. “A REALLY BIG PLAY. I ED TO GO TO DANCE, BUT THEN ALL THE MEN WOULD CHASE AFTER YOU BEE YOU WERE DANCG. SO I’D GO HOME HALSTON’S LIMOE. I’D DUCK DOWN SO THEY ULDN’T SEE ME, BUT THEY’D N AFTER THE R ANYWAY! OH, GOD, WE HAD SUCH GOOD TIM. REMEMBER THE FOUNTA THAT WAS A BLOCK AWAY, ONT OF ONE OF THOSE BIG NEW OFFICE BUILDGS ON SEVENTH AVENUE? WE ED TO GO SWIMMG THERE AFTER 54—WE’D JT FLIP OFF OUR SHO AND DIVE .”NEXT YEAR, TWO S WILL HAVE ELAPSED SCE STEVE RUBELL AND IAN SCHRAGER—“TWO P. T. BARNUM TYP OM BROOKLYN,” AS A VETERAN NEW YORK SCENE-MAKER PUT —OPENED STUD 54 A FORMER CBS TELEVISN STUD ON WT 54TH STREET BETWEEN SEVENTH AND EIGHTH AVENU AND BEGAN THEIR LIR REIGN AS THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHS OF MANHATTAN NIGHTLIFE. AND YET THOSE WHO REGULARLY MA PAST THE LEGENDARY VELVET ROPE RELL THEIR NIGHTS THERE WH AN IMMEDIACY THAT MAK THAT REEE, FARAWAY TIME SEEM LIKE YTERDAY. “WE WERE THE GENERATN WHO HAPPENED TO BE YOUNG BETWEEN THE PILL AND AIDS,” NOT VON FURSTENBERG WH A SIGH. “AND WE REALLY KNEW HOW TO HAVE FUN.”“IN MY MD, I REMEMBER AS A 10-TO-15-YEAR PERD,” SAYS HOLLYWOOD TALENT MANAGER SANDY GALL, WHO EQUENTLY FLEW OM LOS ANGEL TO NEW YORK TO GO TO STUD 54. “IN REALY ONLY LASTED TWO OR THREE YEARS.” IT WAS 33 MONTHS, TO BE EXACT, BETWEEN THE TUMULTUO OPENG-NIGHT PARTY ON APRIL 26, 1977, AND THE TUMULTUO FAREWELL PARTY FOR RUBELL AND SCHRAGER ON FEBARY 2, 1980, TWO NIGHTS BEFORE THEY WERE TO BE RCERATED FOR E-TAX EVASN. “THE LIFE OF 54 WAS CUT ABPTLY SHORT,” SAYS WH STILLMAN, THE DIRECTOR OF METROPOLAN AND BARCELONA. “AT THE HEIGHT OF , WAS SUDNLY OVER.”STILLMAN, WHOSE FIRST DATE WH HIS FUTURE WIFE WAS AT STUD 54, IS CURRENTLY WRG THE SCRIPT FOR HIS NEXT FILM, THE LAST DAYS OF DIS, MUCH OF WHICH WILL BE SET “A FICTNAL CLUB VERY MUCH LIKE 54.” SANDY GALL’S SANDOLLAR PRODUCTNS AND PRODUCER JOHN DAVIS ALSO HAVE A STUD 54 MOVIE VELOPMENT. NEXT SPRG, NDR TELEVISN, THE PBS OF GERMANY, WILL AIR THE LAST DANCE, A FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY PRODUCED AND -DIRECTED BY AL CORLEY, WHO WAS A DOORMAN AT 54 BEFORE STARRG DYNASTY. AND WRER ANTHONY HAN-GUT IS WORKG ON A BOOK ABOUT THE DIS ERA, TLED THE LAST PARTY, TO BE PUBLISHED TIME FOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF STUD 54’S OPENG.WHY SO MUCH FS OVER A SHORT-LIVED NIGHTCLUB? LIKE JAM DEAN THE 50S AND THE BEATL THE 60S, STUD 54 SO EMBODIED S TIME THAT ULDN’T LAST LONG. THE WHOLE WORLD, SEEMED, ME TOGETHER ON THAT STROBE-L DANCE FLOOR A WAY THAT SEEMS NCEIVABLE THIS AGE OF PLAGUE, POLIL RRECTNS, MORAL RIGHTEONS, AND SOCIAL AGMENTATN. UPTOWN AND DOWNTOWN, L.A. AND D.C., LONDON, PARIS, ROME, AND R, SOCIETY QUEENS AND DRAG QUEENS, ATHLET AND ARTISTS, BUTANT AND HIPSTERS, MAYOR BEAME AND ROY COHN, DIANA VREELAND AND MIZ LILLIAN—THEY ALL WERE THERE.MOST POPULARJENNA ORTEGA REILS AT JOHNNY DEPP DATG RUMORS BY EVE BATEYDONALD TMP SPENDS LABOR DAY WEEKEND PLANNG A REVENGE TOURBY JACK MCCORDICKCHRIS ROCK AND JOEL KNAMAN FLEE BURNG MAN FTIVAL IN WAKE OF FLOODG, DEATHBY EVE BATEY“WHEN STEVE AND IAN STARTED STUD 54, I THK THEY THOUGHT THEY’D JT HAVE ONE OF THE BIG DISTHEQU TOWN,” SAYS MIC MOGUL AHMET ERTEGüN, WHO HAS SEEN ALL, OM EL MOROC AND THE STORK CLUB TO THE PEPPERMT LOUNGE, ARTHUR, THE DOM, LE CLUB, RéGE’S, XENON, AREA, AND NELL’S. “I DON’T THK THEY EVER IMAGED WOULD END UP AS THE GREATT CLUB OF ALL TIME.”‘THE IA WAS,” IAN SCHRAGER SAYS, “I WAS GOG TO BUILD AND STEVE WAS GOG TO GET TO NQUER MANHATTAN.” SCHRAGER IS NOW 49, MARRIED TO FORMER NEW YORK CY BALLET DANCER RA NORONA, AND THE FATHER OF A BABY GIRL. HE IS STG BEHD A MATTE-BLACK SK HIS STYLISHLY UTILARIAN OFFICE THE PARAMOUNT HOTEL ON WT 46TH STREET, HEADQUARTERS OF IAN SCHRAGER HOTELS, INC. A FEW DAYS EARLIER, WWD ANOTED HIS RECENTLY OPENED DELANO MIAMI BEACH “STUD 54 WH SUN” AND LISTED THE LUMARI SEEN LOUNGG BY S PHILIPPE STARCK-SIGNED POOL—CALV AND KELLY KLE, DAVID GEFFEN, BARRY DILLER, SANDY GALL, NAOMI CAMPBELL, KATE MOSS, VICTOR ALFARO, RUPERT EVERETT, BRIAN AND ANNE MCNALLY. A FEW DAYS LATER, HE WILL FLY TO L.A., WHERE STARCK IS REDOG SCHRAGER’S LATT AND LARGT ACQUISN, THE MONDRIAN, ON THE SUNSET STRIP.SCHRAGER AND RUBELL OPENED THEIR FIRST NEW YORK HOTEL, MANS, 1984, THREE YEARS AFTER THEY GOT OUT OF JAIL. THE ROYALTON FOLLOWED 1988. IN BETWEEN, THEY LNCHED THE QUTSENTIAL 80S CLUB, THE PALLADIUM. THE PARAMOUNT WAS UNR NSTCTN WHEN RUBELL DIED, AT AGE 45, OF LIVER AILMENTS PROBABLY ED BY AIDS, 1989.RUBELL AND SCHRAGER MET 1964 AT SYRACE UNIVERSY. RUBELL WAS A SENR HISTORY MAJOR, CHARGE OF SEATG THE MOST IMPORTANT MP SOCIAL EVENTS, THE SATURDAY-AFTERNOON FOOTBALL GAM. SCHRAGER WAS A HMAN ENOMICS MAJOR, AND WOULD GO ON TO BE ELECTED PRINT OF SIGMA ALPHA MU ATERNY, TO WHICH THEY BOTH BELONGED. “WE WERE DATG THE SAME GIRL,” HE RELLS. “AND OM THE WAY WE WENT ABOUT PETG FOR HER, WE ME TO RPECT AND LIKE EACH OTHER. AND THE IENDSHIP JT GOT CLOSER AND CLOSER AND CLOSER. I WOULD SAY THAT OM THE END OF 1964 UNTIL STEVE DIED 1989 I SPOKE TO HIM EVERY SGLE DAY. A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WENT TO SYRACE WERE OM WTCHTER AND THE FIVE TOWNS OF LONG ISLAND, AND STEVE AND I WERE BOTH OM BROOKLYN—WE GREW UP WH WALKG DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER EAST FLATBH. SO WE HAD THE SAME MIDDLE-CLASS BACKGROUND AND VALU.”RUBELL’S FATHER WAS A POSTAL WORKER, HIS MOTHER A HIGH-SCHOOL LAT TEACHER; THEIR FATHERS WERE BOTH POOR RABBIS WHO HAD FLED THE POGROMS RSIA. RUBELL WENT TO SYRACE ON A PARTIAL TENNIS SCHOLARSHIP, WORKED THE STUNT FETERIA, AND LIVERED PIZZAS FOR $9 A NIGHT. HE AND SCHRAGER WERE AT SYRACE TOGETHER FOR THREE YEARS, BEE RUBELL STAYED ON TO GET A MASTER’S FANCE. SCHRAGER, WHO WAS ALSO OM A STGGLG JEWISH FAY, WORKED AS A DISHWASHER, BBOY, AND WAER AT A LOL RTRANT. DURG HIS JUNR YEAR, HIS FATHER DIED, STG A SHADOW ON THE FAY REPUTATN WHEN A FLORIDA NEWSPAPER RAN AN OBUARY LKG HIM TO ILLIC GAMBLG TERTS, AND LEAVG HIS SON WH A DISTRGHT MOTHER WHO WOULD DIE A FEW YEARS LATER, A DIVORCED AND MENTALLY UNSTABLE SISTER, A NIECE WH CYSTIC FIBROSIS, AND A BROTHER JUNR HIGH. AFTER GRADUATG OM SYRACE 1968, SCHRAGER EARNED A LAW GREE OM ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSY QUEENS 1971, PRACTICED BS LAW AT A MANHATTAN FIRM FOR THREE YEARS, AND THEN WENT OUT ON HIS OWN 1974. HIS FIRST CLIENT: STEVE RUBELL.RUBELL HAD LEFT SYRACE 1967, SERVED AN TELLIGENCE UN OF THE ARMY RERV, AND SPENT A YEAR THE BACK OFFICE OF A WALL STREET BROKERAGE HOE, WHERE HE BEME SO BORED THAT HE TALKED HIS FATHER TO SHG A $15,000 WAR BOND AND LETTG HIM OPEN A SIRLO-AND-SALAD RTRANT ROCKVILLE CENTRE, LONG ISLAND. BY 1974 HE OWNED 13 STEAK LOFTS NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT, AND FLORIDA, AS WELL AS PART TERT TWO DISTHEQU—15 LANDSDOWNE BOSTON AND THE ENCHANTED GARN DOUGLASTON, QUEENS—WH CLUB OPERATOR JOHN ADDISON. ONE NIGHT RUBELL TOOK HIS NEW LAWYER TO LE JARD, THE JEWEL OF ADDISON’S BOOMG DIS EMPIRE. LOTED THE TARTED-UP BASEMENT OF A SEEDY TIM SQUARE HOTEL, LE JARD, AS BRAD GOOCH HAS WRTEN, “WAS THE FIRST GAY DIS TO TRANSCEND SELF.”SCHRAGER SAYS, “THAT WAS THE PLACE THAT HAD THE BIGGT IMPACT ON STEVE AND ME. YOU ULD ABSOLUTELY CUT THE ELECTRICY THE AIR. FOR LACK OF A BETTER TERM, WAS LIKE A SODOM AND GOMORRAH. THERE WAS ENZY ON THE DANCE FLOOR, THE MIC WAS REVERBERATG AROUND THE ROOM, THEY HAD LIGHTG EFFECTS, AND WAS LIKE—BOY!—OVERWHELMG. SEX THE BATHROOM—ALL OF THAT WAS GOG ON. AND NO MATTER HOW HARD JOHN ADDISON TRIED TO KEEP STRAIGHT PEOPLE OUT, HE ULDN’T. . . . I REMEMBER SEEG BIAN JAGGER THERE—THE FIRST TIME I EVER SAW HER. SHE WAS SO BETIFUL. THE ROLLG STON HAD A PARTY THERE DURG THEIR 1975 TOUR. IF MICK JAGGER ME TO YOUR CLUB, THAT WAS ALL YOU NEED. OR ANDY WARHOL. WHEN ANDY WARHOL WENT TO A CLUB, WAS LIKE THE GOOD HOEKEEPG SEAL OF APPROVAL.”LATER THAT YEAR MRICE BRAHMS, A OF ADDISON’S, OPENED INFY, A HUGE DANCE HALL ON LOWER BROADWAY, AND HIRED PEVIAN P.R. SORCERS CARMEN D’ALS TO HOST MONTHLY PARTI. D’ALS HAD WORKED ITALY FOR THE UTURIER VALENTO, AND WAS SOUGHT AFTER BY CLUB OWNERS FOR HER MAILG LIST OF RICH YOUNG EUROPEANS, WHO HAD BEEN FLOCKG TO NEW YORK EVER GREATER NUMBERS SCE J. PL GETTY III WAS KIDNAPPED OM A ROME DIS 1973. “I DID A PARTY LLED CARMEN’S CARNIVAL FEBARY 1976,” D’ALS SAYS. “AND STEVE AND IAN SPOTTED ME FOR THE FIRST TIME—ON TOP OF THE SHOULRS OF STERLG ST. JACQU, THIS GEO SIX-FOOT-SOMETHG BLACK MALE MOL, DANCG AWAY ONE OF MY BETIFUL GRG SANT’ANGELO WHE OUTFS. SO OF URSE THEY WANTED ME FOR THE ENCHANTED GARN.” RUBELL AND SCHRAGER HAD FORMED A PARTNERSHIP TO TAKE NTROL OF THE QUEENS CLUB—A NVERTED 11-ROOM MANSN SET THE MIDDLE OF A MUNICIPAL GOLF URSE—OM ADDISON, EXCHANGE FOR RUBELL’S SHAR THE BOSTON CLUB. “WE STARTED WH A THOAND AND ONE NIGHTS PARTY,” D’ALS NTU. “WE HAD ELEPHANTS AND MELS. THE WAERS WERE DRSED UP AS ARABS. IT WAS A PRODUCTN. AND WE END UP ON THE VER OF NEWSWEEK. ”VANY FAIR SPECIAL RRPONNT MREEN ORTH, WHO WAS NEWSWEEK’S ENTERTAMENT EDOR THEN, SAYS, “I WAS ASSIGNED TO WRE A VER STORY ON DIS CULTURE, AND I ASKED MY ASSISTANT, BETSY CARTER, WHO IS NOW EDOR OF NEW WOMAN, TO CHECK OUT THIS CLUB QUEENS WE’D HEARD HAD THE GREAT THEME PARTI. STEVE RUBELL ME TO PICK HER UP A LIMOE, WH HIS MOTHER AND FATHER THE BACKSEAT. HE TOLD HER, ‘BETSY, THIS IS THE MOST EXCG NIGHT OF MY LIFE SCE MY BAR MZVAH.’”AMERI WAS ED THE THRO OF DISANIA BY 1976. ACRDG TO NEWSWEEK, SOME 8,000 DANCE PALAC HAD OPENED ACROSS THE UNTRY THE PREV TWO YEARS. BARRY WHE, DONNA SUMMER, AND GLORIA GAYNOR LED THE RAD. AFTER VIETNAM, WATERGATE, AND A EP, LGERG RECSN, AMERINS, SEEMED, JT WANTED TO GO OUT AND BOOGIE. IN NEW YORK, WHERE THE FANCIAL SUATN WAS SO BAD THAT THE CY HAD FLTED ON S BONDS 1975, THE HUNGER FOR FUN WAS ALL THE MORE SATIABLE. LEADG THE SH TO THE CLUBS WAS A TERIE OF FASHN SIGNERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND ILLTRATORS, CLUDG HALSTON, FERNANDO SANCHEZ, FRANC SVULLO, BILL KG, ARA GALLANT, AND ANTON LOPEZ, AND THE GLAMOUR GIRLS WHO SWIRLED AROUND THEM—PALOMA PISSO, ANJELI HTON, JERRY HALL, PAT CLEVELAND, APPOLLONIA VON RAVENSTE, BARBARA ALLEN, LREN HUTTON, JANICE DICKENSON, IMAN. ANDY WARHOL AND HIS CREW OM INTERVIEW MAGAZE, OF WHICH I WAS EDOR, WERE VERY MUCH PART OF THIS GROUP. TRANSATLANTIC VISS OM YV SAT LRENT AND VALENTO, WH THEIR STARRY ENTOURAG—LOULOU LA FALAISE, PIERRE BERGé, MARISA BERENSON, HELMUT BERGER, FLORDA BOLKAN, MARA CIGNA, GIANRLO GIAMMETTI—MEANT NIGHTLY DNERS AT PEARL’S AND ELAE’S, FOLLOWED BY DANCG TO THE SMALL HOURS. IN 1976 THIS CROWD UALLY ULD BE FOUND AT HURRAH, A THROBBG, MIRRORED PLAYROOM ON WT 62ND STREET N BY ARTHUR WESTE, A FORMER LE JARD WAER WHO DATED JSI LANGE. SO ULD CARMEN D’ALS, TRODUCG STEVE RUBELL AROUND THE ROOM.AMONG THE HURRAH REGULARS WAS THE SWEDISH MALE MOL UVA HARN, WHO WAS MARRIED TO THE ACTRS BARBARA CARRERA (“THE OTHER NIRAGUAN,” AS PALS OF HER RIVAL, BIAN JAGGER, LLED HER). HARN HAD PLANS TO OPEN A CLUB OF HIS OWN, A BOARD-UP BUILDG AT 254 WT 54TH STREET, WHICH, FOR SOME ODD REASON, HAD BEEN LLED STUD 52 WHEN CBS ED TO TAPE WHAT’S MY LE? AND THE $64,000 QUTN. HARN HAD LED UP FRANK LLOYD, THE HEAD OF THE MARLBOROUGH GALLERY, AS HIS BACKER, AND ASKED CARMEN D’ALS TO WORK WH THEM. BUT MARLBOROUGH LOST A URT SE TO THE HEIRS OF THE MARK ROTHKO TATE, AND, AS D’ALS EXPLAS, “FRANK LLOYD ELOPED TO THE BAHAMAS AND WE WERE LEFT WH THE PROJECT. UVA TOLD ME, ‘WE NEED BACKERS!’ SO I SAID TO STEVE AND IAN, ‘WHAT ABOUT G TO THE BIG APPLE ONCE AND FOR ALL?’ THEY ME, THEY SAW THE SPACE, THEY LOVED .”RUBELL AND SCHRAGER PAID HARN A FR’S FEE AND FOUND A NEW BACKER: JACK DHEY, A BROOKLYN DISUNT-STORE OWNER WHO HAD HAD HIS SON’S BAR MZVAH AT THE ENCHANTED GARN. RUBELL, SCHRAGER, AND DHEY EACH TOOK A ONE-THIRD TERT THE BROADWAY CATERG CORPORATN, WHICH THEY FORMED TO LEASE THE BUILDG. DHEY PUT UP ALMOST $500,000 SH FOR THE SIX-WEEK CRASH NSTCTN JOB WHICH TRANSFORMED STUD 52 TO STUD 54. SCHRAGER, WHO SUPERVISED THE SIGN, SAYS, “EVERYONE WHO WORKED ON STUD 54 HAD NEVER WORKED ON A NIGHTCLUB BEFORE, EXCEPT FOR THE SOUND GUY. THAT GUARANTEED A H APPROACH. THE ARCHECTS, RON DOWD AND STT BROMLEY, HAD DONE THE WPA RTRANT SOHO. THE LIGHTG WAS BY JUL FISHER AND PL MARANTZ, WHO HAD DONE THE BROADWAY SHOW CHIGO. IT WAS THEIR IA TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE THEATRIL RIGS WE HAD SO WE ULD HAVE MOVG AND CHANGG SCENERY. THE SOUND WAS BY RICHARD LONG, WHO DID MOST OF THE GAY DISS TOWN. WE HAD HUGE BASS SPEAKERS ON THE FLOOR SO YOU ULD ACTUALLY FEEL THE MIC, AND TWEETER ARRAYS HANGG OM THE CEILG. THE IA WAS TO NSTANTLY ASSLT THE SENS. FOR OUR LOGO, WE WENT TO THE GRAPHIC SIGNER OF TIME MAGAZE, GIL LSER, WHO HAD DONE THE AWARD-WNG POSTER FOR EQU. HE DID OUR OPENG-NIGHT VATN TOO, WHICH WAS A BIG POSTER OF THE LOGO, VG YOU TO THE ‘PREMIERE’ OF STUD 54—‘DRS SPECTACULAR.’”CLDIA COHEN, THEN A “PAGE SIX” REPORTER FOR THE NEW YORK POST, RELLS CHECKG THE CLUB OUT SHORTLY BEFORE S OPENG: “IT WAS A TOTAL NSTCTN SE. IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE A PLACE THAT WAS GOG TO OPEN 8 TO 10 DAYS. ALL OF A SUDN THIS LIFE FORCE—STEVE RUBELL—BURST TO THE ROOM. ‘HIYA, HIYA, HOW YA DO’? LET ME SHOW YOU THE PLACE.’ I THOUGHT WAS THE CRAZIT THG I’D EVER HEARD, OPENG A NIGHTCLUB THAT LOTN. BUT I WAS SO IMPRSED BY HIS NFINCE THAT I LEFT MY DOUBTS ABOUT S SUCCS OUT OF WHAT I WROTE. STEVE GAVE ME A RI BACK TO THE NEWSPAPER. HE TOLD ME HIS ENTIRE LIFE STORY ALL THE WAY DOWN TO SOUTH STREET. SO I WENT TO THE OPENG. IT WAS LIKE THE DAY OF THE LOCT. BUT I GOT , AND WAS DONE TIME, AND WAS FABULO.”SO MANY PEOPLE TURNED OUT FOR THE OPENG, WHICH WAS HOSTED BY FCCI, THE TRENDY ITALIAN EMPORIUM ON EAST 59TH STREET KNOWN FOR S SKTIGHT, NEON-LORED DIS FASHNS, THAT CARMEN D’ALS, WHO ANIZED , “HAD TO BE TAPULTED OVER THE CROWD. MY MOTHER, WHO ME OM LIMA, HAD TO BE THROWN . LTER PERSKY TOLD ME THAT HE ME WH JACK NICHOLSON AND THEY ULDN’T GET . IT WAS MASS, MASS NFN.”“I REMEMBER STEVE LLG ME THAT NEXT MORNG,” IAN SCHRAGER SAYS. “AND WE ULDN’T BELIEVE : THERE WAS A PICTURE OF CHER AT THE OPENG ON THE ONT PAGE OF THE NEW YORK POST. I REMEMBER LIKE WAS TODAY. CHER WAS WEARG A T-SHIRT WH SPENRS, A PAIR OF JEANS, AND A STRAW HAT. THE ONT PAGE. THE WHOLE PAGE. NO NIGHTCLUB UP TO THEN HAD DONE THAT.“THAT WAS THE END OF APRIL, AND THEN BIAN’S PARTY WAS MAY. JOE EULA, THE FASHN ILLTRATOR, LLED AND ASKED IF WE WOULD OPEN ON A MONDAY NIGHT—WE WERE DARK MONDAYS, LIKE THE THEATER—FOR A SPECIAL PARTY HALSTON WANTED TO GIVE FOR BIAN’S BIRTHDAY. HE ONLY HAD ABOUT 150 PEOPLE. THE BT PEOPLE, OM BARYSHNIKOV TO JACQUELE BISSET.” AROUND MIDNIGHT, OM BEHD A CURTA AT THE REAR OF THE DANCE FLOOR, STERLG ST. JACQU EMERGED, HIS BODY GLISTENG WH SILVER GLTER. HE WAS LEADG A WHE PONY BEARG A SILVERED LADY GODIVA. FLASH WENT OFF AS BIAN TOOK GODIVA’S PLACE ON THE PONY. HER PICTURE PUT STUD 54 ON ONT PAG ALL OVER THE WORLD. MICK JAGGER WAS AT THE PARTY, OF URSE. SO WAS ANDY WARHOL.ONE OF THE MANY WONRS OF STUD 54 WAS THE SPACE SELF. REMARKABLY, NEVER FELT OVERCROWD, EVEN WHEN WAS FULL TO S PACY OF 2,000 PEOPLE. A LONG, WI, DARK ENTRANCE HALL, S RPETED FLOOR CLG UPWARD, LED TO THE BIG ROUND BAR, WH PLENTY OF ROOM AROUND TO CLTER AND CIRCULATE. BEYOND THAT WAS THE 11,000-SQUARE-FOOT DANCE FLOOR WH S 85-FOOT-HIGH CEILG. A STAIRSE OFF THE ENTRANCE HALL LED TO THE PLH MEZZANE LOUNGE, A SEND BAR, AND THE BROAD, CURVG BALNY WH S RISG ROWS OF MAROON VELVET THEATER SEATS, OM WHICH YOU ULD WATCH THE DANCERS BELOW OR, HIGHER UP, HI OUT. “EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY WAS TURNED TO A PARTY ROOM,” SAYS 54 BBOY RICHARD NOTAR, WHO IS NOW THE GENERAL MANAGER OF THE RTRANT NOBU TRIBE. “EVEN THE ROOM WHERE THE GUYS WHO CLEANED UP KEPT THEIR BROOMS HAD A SOFA . YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE THE THGS THOSE GUYS ED TO FD: JEWELS, PILLS, MONEY, SHMERE SRV, A MERA WH AN OUNCE OF KE .”THE WELL-BUILT YOUNG BARTENRS AND BBOYS WORE GYM SHORTS AND SNEAKERS, AND DANCED AS THEY MA AND SERVED DRKS. “IT WAS VISCERAL ENTERTAMENT,” SAYS SCHRAGER. “THEY WERE ALL PART OF THE SHOW.” ACRDG TO NOTAR, THEY WORKED HARD, “BUT WAS SO MUCH FUN. I’D JUMP A LIMOE MY SHORTS AND A LEATHER JACKET AND GO TO P. J. CLARKE’S AND GET 30 OR 40 HAMBURGERS TO GO—WHATEVER TOOK TO MAKE THE PARTY. I PLAYED PBALL WH CHIP CARTER, THE PRINT’S SON. WE HAD THE PBALL MACH OM THE ELTON JOHN PARTY THAT WE’D PUT THE BASEMENT. ONCE, MARGARET T LLED ME AT MY PARENTS’ HOE AT FOUR THE MORNG. THE PRIME MISTER’S WIFE! VAS GELAIS, WHO HAD A BETIFUL BANANA-LORED ROLLS-ROYCE, DROVE ME HOME TO QUEENS A UPLE OF TIM. CATHERE GUNS WENT AS ME, SHORTS AND NO SHIRT, WHEN HALSTON HAD THAT DRAG PARTY.”THE GREATT WONR OF ALL WAS STEVE RUBELL WORKG THE DOOR. FROM 11:30 UNTIL 1, HE WOULD STAND ON A STEP STOOL ABOVE THE CROWD, CHOOSG WHO WOULD MAKE BEYOND THE VELVET ROPE, WHICH THEY HAD PUT UP ORIGALLY TO KEEP OUT THE EIGHTH AVENUE RELICTS WHO WERE WANRG TO THE FOYER TO WARM UP. “PEOPLE GOT SO PISSED AT THE DOOR POLICY BEE SMACKED OF ELISM,” SAYS SCHRAGER, “BUT HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHG TO DO WH RACE, CREED, LOR, OR RELIGN. IT WAS JT EXERCISG THE SAME DISCRETN YOU’D E WHEN YOU HAVE A PARTY YOUR HOME.”“IT’S LIKE MIXG A SALAD,” RUBELL ED TO SAY, “OR STG A PLAY. IF GETS TOO STRAIGHT, THEN THERE’S NOT ENOUGH ENERGY THE ROOM. IF GETS TOO GAY, THEN THERE’S NO GLAMOUR. WE WANT TO BE BISEXUAL. VERY, VERY, VERY BISEXUAL.” AN SIR ELABORAT: “STEVE HAD CERTA CRERIA. HE WANTED THE MOST FAMO, GLAMORO, RICH, BETIFUL, AND TERTG PEOPLE. HE ED TO JOKE, ‘IF I WASN’T THE OWNER, I WOULDN’T BE ALLOWED .’” AMONG THOSE WHO WERE EXCLUD, AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, WERE FRANK SATRA, THE PRINT OF CYPS, THE KG OF SDI ARABIA’S SON, ROBERTA FLACK, AND SEVERAL YOUNG KENNEDYS, WHO THEN FECTED TO XENON, 54’S PETOR ON WT 43RD STREET.TO A LARGE GREE, THE DOOR POLICY MA STUD 54. “IT CREATED AN EXHILARATG MONALY,” SAYS PL WILMOT, NOW A CONDé NAST VICE PRINT, THEN AN EXECUTIVE AT HALSTON FRAGRANC. “THE FEELG WAS: WE’RE ALL HERE TOGETHER, AND WE’RE ALL REALLY OL BEE WE’RE HERE.”AL CORLEY SAYS, “YOU FELT LIKE WAS A SAFE PLACE TO DROP YOUR GUARD. I ULD KISS A GUY, I ULD KISS A GIRL—’S O.K. BY EVERYBODY HERE, BY GUYS SUS AND GUYS DRS, GIRLS SHORTS AND LADI GOWNS. IT WAS ABOUT THE FANTASI OF EVERYONE THERE. STUD 54 REALLY WAS A THEME PARK FOR ADULTS.”MOST POPULARJENNA ORTEGA REILS AT JOHNNY DEPP DATG RUMORS BY EVE BATEYDONALD TMP SPENDS LABOR DAY WEEKEND PLANNG A REVENGE TOURBY JACK MCCORDICKCHRIS ROCK AND JOEL KNAMAN FLEE BURNG MAN FTIVAL IN WAKE OF FLOODG, DEATHBY EVE BATEY“STUD 54 WAS THE GREAT LEVELER,” ADDS PARK AVENUE HOSTS NAN KEMPNER. “AND NO MATTER HOW TIRED YOU WERE, YOU’D BE THERE FOR FIVE MUT AND YOU’D FEEL REALLY MARVELO. THE MIC GOT TO YOU, AND THE FACT THAT EVERYBODY SEEMED TO BE HAPPY AND JOLLY. ALTHOUGH I DID HAVE THAT UNPLEASANT TMAN CAPOTE NIGHT THERE. HE WAS ALL SET TO GO BAM, BAM, BAM MY FACE. THIS VILE LTLE MAN. A FEW NIGHTS LATER, HALSTON HAD A PARTY THE OLYMPIC TOWER, AND TMAN ME UP TO ME AND SAID, ‘I’M SO SORRY, BUT WHEN I GET SMASHED, I LOOK AT YOU AND SEE JERRY ZIPK.’ I SAID, “THAT’S THE MOST UNFLATTERG THG ANYBODY’S EVER SAID TO ME.’” THAT WAS THE CLOST THG TO A BARROOM BRAWL AT STUD 54, AND I WAS THE ONE WHO STOPPED THE TY TERROR OM STRIKG THE SOCIAL X-RAY, A HEROIC ACT FOR WHICH LIZ SMH LLED ME “THE SAT FRANCIS OF ASSISI OF THE SILLY SOCIALE SET.”AT ONE, WHEN STEVE RUBELL ME TO THE CLUB AND PLAYED HOST, IAN SCHRAGER UALLY WENT HOME TO HIS GIRLIEND, THOSE DAYS THE SIGNER NORMA KAMALI, AFTER MAKG SURE THAT EVERYTHG WAS NNG SMOOTHLY. SCHRAGER WAS THE TROVERT WHO MA THGS WORK. HE DIDN’T HANG OUT WH THE STARS. THEY GOT TO KNOW HIM WHEN HE PLANNED PARTI FOR THEM. “I WANTED TO GIVE A CIRC PARTY FOR VALENTO’S BIRTHDAY,” SAYS VALENTO’S BS PARTNER, GIANRLO GIAMMETTI. “IAN PUT TOGETHER THREE DAYS. WE HAD A CIRC RG WH SAND, AND MERMAIDS ON TRAPEZ. FELLI GAVE STUM OM HIS FILM THE CLOWNS. VALENTO WAS THE RGMASTER, AND MARA SCHIANO ME AS A PALM REAR WH A PARROT ON HER SHOULR.”SCHRAGER TOLD ME THAT THE PARTI WERE “PROMOTNAL MARKETG TOOLS. WE SOLICED PEOPLE; THEY DIDN’T SOLIC . WE SPENT ANYWHERE OM $2,500 UP TO $100,000 FOR THE HALLOWEEN PARTI, WHICH WERE MY FAVOR.” SCHRAGER ALSO PUT TOGETHER, WH SUPERFLORIST RENNY REYNOLDS, EXTRAVAGANZAS ON NEW YEAR’S EVE (THE FIRST ONE FEATURED A PERFORMANCE BY GRACE JON WH A BEVY OF BOYS ON LEASH), VALENTE’S DAY (FOR ONE, 54 WAS TURNED TO A GARN PLETE WH SOD, FLOWER BEDS, AND PICKET FENCG), AND OSR NIGHT (“I REMEMBER ORRG A TCKLOAD OF POPRN,” SAYS REYNOLDS). BIAN JAGGER’S 1978 BIRTHDAY BASH WAS A “BABY PARTY,” WH ICE-CREAM-NE VAS, BOWLS OF CRACKER JACKS, AND BBOYS DIAPERS. FOR RUBELL’S BIRTHDAY THAT DECEMBER, BIAN POPPED OUT OF THE BIRTHDAY KE AND WAS NEARLY SUFFOTED A BLIZZARD OF PLASTIC SNOW. THE PARTY ALANA HATON GAVE FOR MERCES HEIR MICK FLICK FEATURED A MERCES WRAPPED GOLD LAMé. A BRIGA OF HELL’S ANGELS ON HARLEYS ROARED ONTO THE DANCE FLOOR FOR CARMEN D’ALS’S BIRTHDAY PARTY. KARL LAGERFELD HAD A NDLEL 18TH-CENTURY PARTY WH THE BBOYS URT DRS AND POWRED WIGS AND, JT TO TWIST THGS UP, A LIVE REGGAE NCERT AT THREE THE MORNG. ARMANI LED THE ENTRANCE HALL WH CLASSIL VLISTS WHE TIE; HIS TWIST WAS A PERFORMANCE BY THE TRANSVTE BALLET TRORO MONTE CARLO. THE MOST AMAZG PARTY OF ALL WAS FOR ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S BIRTHDAY 1978. THE ROCKETT PERFORMED AND THEN PRENTED THE MOVIE STAR, WHO WAS STANDG ON A FLOAT OF GARNIAS BETWEEN HALSTON AND HER THEN HBAND, SENATOR JOHN WARNER OF VIRGIA, WH A KE THAT WAS A FULL-SIZE PORTRA OF HER. AS TAYLOR GAMELY CUT A GOOD-LUCK SLICE OM THE BUTTERCREAM BOSOM, WARNER FLED THE PAPARAZZI.ON ANY GIVEN NIGHT AT STUD 54, ONE ULD FD DIANA ROSS, FRAN LEBOWZ, AND FARRAH FAWCETT ON THE DANCE FLOOR, JOHN MCENROE, ILIE NASTASE, AND CHERYL TIEGS AT THE BAR, LYNN WYATT, SãO SCHLUMBERGER, AND KENNY JAY LANE ON A BANQUETTE, BARRY DILLER, CALV KLE, AND DAVID GEFFEN AGAST THE BACK WALL, ROD STEWART, PETER FRAMPTON, AND RYAN O’NEAL UP THE BALNY, PETER BEARD THE LADI’ ROOM, DEBBIE HARRY THE MEN’S ROOM, AND A TEENAGE MICHAEL JACKSON THE D.J. BOOTH, PLAYG WH THE LIGHTS AND SOUND. “IT WAS SO EXCG I SOMETIM HAD TO TAKE A TRANQUILIZER,” SAYS BEREGARD HOTON-MONTGOMERY. “YOU SAW SO MANY CELEBRI. THE WAS: YOU DIDN’T SPEAK TO THEM, BUT VERY OFTEN THEY SPOKE TO YOU. I DON’T THK ANY STALKERS GOT TO 54. STEVE RUBELL WAS THE STALKER.”“STEVE WOULD SEE HIS IENDS A E AWAY,” SAYS A STAR WHO WAS A REGULAR. “HE WOULD WHISK YOU , PUT A QUAALU YOUR HAND, GIVE YOU A DRK, AND GIVE YOU A BARTENR TOO. THERE WAS A GREAT AL OF SEXUAL TENSN ALL THE TIME. AND THERE WAS SEX GOG ON— THE BALNY, ON THE FIRE P, DOWN THE BASEMENT.”THE BASEMENT OF 54, A WARREN OF STORAGE AREAS NNECTED BY ZIGZAGGG PASSAGEWAYS, HAS BEE FAMO AS A KD OF IASTIC NER SANCTUM. AS EDOR OF INTERVIEW, WHICH WAS OFTEN CRICIZED AS BEG THE HOE AN OF 54, I WAS THE RARE JOURNALIST ALLOWED DOWNSTAIRS. WHILE WAS EASY ENOUGH TO BUY A GRAM OF E THERE, MOSTLY THE -CROWD SAT AROUND TALKG THE NIGHT AWAY WHILE BBOYS RAN AND OUT WH BOTTL OF STOLICHNAYA. THE BASEMENT’S HIGH POT OCCURRED AFTER THE LNCH PARTY OF YV SAT LRENT’S OPIUM PERFUME, WHEN THE TRIUMPHANT FRENCH SIGNER ENTERED ONE OF THE CYCLONE-FENCED STORAGE BS AND WAS GREETED BY HALSTON, WHO GRANDLY KISSED HIM ON BOTH CHEEKS. “YOU HAVE JT WNSED ONE OF THE GREAT MOMENTS THE HISTORY OF FASHN,” CLARED TMAN CAPOTE. “IF YOU RE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF FASHN.”THE FIRST TIME THE BASEMENT WAS EVER ED WAS AS A “REHEARSAL SPACE” FOR LIZA MNELLI, BIAN JAGGER, HALSTON, AND WARHOL, WHO WERE PUTTG ON “AN ACT” FOR THE FIRST-ANNIVERSARY PARTY, APRIL 1978. “IT WAS LIKE SPANKY AND OUR GANG—LET’S DO A SHOW,” SCHRAGER REMISC. “EXCEPT STEAD OF ALFALFA AND SPANKY, WAS STEVE AND ME. THAT WAS THE UNRLYG SPIR OF 54. THERE WAS AN NOCENCE ABOUT , A SPONTANEY. IT GOT RPTED, UNFORTUNATELY.”HOTON-MONTGOMERY RELLS A HNTG SCENE: “IT WAS FIVE A.M. STEVE, HALSTON, BIAN, AND ELSA PERETTI WERE STILL THERE. STEVE GRABBED BIAN TO DANCE. HE WAS FALLG ALL OVER HER. FALLY ELSA PERETTI STOOD UP AND TANGOED BIAN AWAY, AND A HUNKY BARTENR HAD TO HELP STEVE OFF THE DANCE FLOOR.”“I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN TALK ABOUT STUD 54,” BIAN JAGGER TOLD ME WHEN I APPROACHED HER ABOUT THIS STORY. “I WISH NEVER EXISTED.”ON DECEMBER 14, 1978, SOME 30 I.R.S. AGENTS ENTERED STUD 54, APPREHEND IAN SCHRAGER, AND SEIZED GARBAGE BAGS FULL OF SH OM THE BASEMENT, FANCIAL RERDS HIDN BEHD CEILG PANELS, AND FIVE OUNC OF E. RUBELL WAS ALSO ARRTED THAT DAY. THE CLUB WAS THOUGHT TO BE TAKG $70,000 A NIGHT, AND THE OWNERS WERE ACCED OF SKIMMG $2.5 LN. SCHRAGER AND RUBELL WERE RELEASED THE NEXT MORNG ON $50,000 BAIL EACH, WORKED OUT BY THEIR LAWYER, ROY COHN. ON JUNE 28, 1979, A GRAND JURY DICTED THEM AND JACK DHEY ON 12 UNTS, CLUDG D AND TAX EVASN. THEY PLEAD NOT GUILTY. AND THEN RUBELL MA HEADL BY ACCG PRINT CARTER’S WHE HOE CHIEF OF STAFF, HATON JORDAN, OF G E THE BASEMENT OF 54 APRIL 1978.“ULTIMATELY, STEVE BEME PLETELY MAD WH HIS POWER,” SAYS A CLOSE IEND. “HE LOST HIS MD. HE THOUGHT HE WAS ABOVE THE LAW. THE DGS—THE QUAALUS—HAD A LOT TO DO WH . HE WAS PLETELY OUT OF TOUCH WH REALY.”MEANWHILE, AS ROY COHN NEGOTIATED A PLEA BARGA, THE PARTY AT STUD 54 WENT ON AND ON AND ON. THAT SEPTEMBER, RUBELL AND SCHRAGER UNVEILED A LN-DOLLAR EXPANSN, CLUDG A THIRD FLOOR WH A LAVISH NEW BAR AND A MOVG BRIDGE WHICH SWEPT ABOVE THE DANCE FLOOR. IN NOVEMBER, AFTER DHEY TURNED STATE’S EVINCE AGAST THEM, RUBELL AND SCHRAGER PLEAD GUILTY TO TWO UNTS OF RPORATE AND PERSONAL E-TAX EVASN, AND JANUARY 1980 THEY WERE SENTENCED TO THREE AND A HALF YEARS. LIZA MNELLI SANG “NEW YORK, NEW YORK” AT THEIR FAREWELL PARTY. AFTER SERVG ONE YEAR—SIX MONTHS “THE TOMBS” MANHATTAN AND SIX MONTHS A MIMUM-SECURY PRISON ALABAMA—THEY PROVID RMATN LEADG TO THE NVICTN OF FOUR OTHER NEW YORK CLUB OWNERS, CLUDG MRICE BRAHMS, AND WERE PAROLED TO NEW YORK’S PHOENIX HOE.“SO WE HAD AN ENFORCED TERLU OUR LIV,” SAYS SCHRAGER. “THANK GOD WE WERE TOGETHER AND WERE ABLE TO KEEP OUR ZT FOR LIFE. STEVE WAS LIKE THE MAYOR OF JAIL, THE SAME WAY HE WAS THE MAYOR OF STUD 54. IT WAS THERE THAT WE CID WE WANTED TO GO TO THE HOTEL BS. BEE WE SUFFERED SOMETHG MOST PEOPLE DON’T WHEN THEY MAKE A MISTAKE LIKE WE DID: WE ULDN’T GO BACK TO THE BS WE KNEW. WE DIDN’T HAVE ANYTHG WHEN WE GOT OUT. I REMEMBER CALV KLE OFFERG TO GIVE A BLANK CHECK, WHICH OF URSE WE DIDN’T TAKE.”WHILE THEY WERE PRISON, STUD 54 WAS BOUGHT BY HOTEL OWNER MARK FLEISCHMAN, WHO RAN WH CARMEN D’ALS, SCHRAGER’S RIGHT HAND MICHAEL OVERGTON, AND MARC BENECKE, THE DOORMAN RUBELL HAD TRAED, WHO LATER WENT ON TO N BAR ONE WT HOLLYWOOD. BUT WAS NEVER QUE THE SAME, EVEN AFTER THEIR RELEASE, WHEN THEY HELPED FLEISCHMAN ON EVENTS SUCH AS MARCI KLE’S SWEET-16 PARTY. IT CLOSED 1983. RUBELL AND SCHRAGER TOOK OVER FLEISCHMAN’S EXECUTIVE HOTEL ON MADISON AVENUE AT 38TH STREET EXCHANGE FOR NOT HE OWED THEM. THEY HIRED ANDRéE PUTMAN, THE AVANT-GAR PARISIAN SIGNER, TO TURN TO MANS, NEW YORK’S FIRST BOUTIQUE HOTEL, AND HELD STG LLS FOR DOORMEN AND BELLHOPS. BIAN JAGGER MOVED TO A PENTHOE SUE, AND ACROSS THE HALL, RUBELL TOLD IENDS, CHER’S VISORS CLUD TOM CISE AND VAL KILMER. MANS TURNED A PROF S FIRST YEAR, WH A 96 PERCENT OCCUPANCY RATE.THE $10 LN PALLADIUM OPENED 1985, BUT RUBELL AND SCHRAGER WERE HIGH-PAID NSULTANTS RATHER THAN OWNERS, BEE AS NVICTED FELONS THEY ULDN’T GET A LIQUOR LICENSE. THEY WERE NOW MUCH MORE FOCED ON THE HOTEL BS. THEY BOUGHT A RAMBLG MANSN ON THE OCEAN SOUTHAMPTON AND BEGAN DATG TWO EMPLOYE OF CAROLA HERRERA’S. SCHRAGER BEME ENGAGED TO HERRERA’S HEAD OF PUBLIC RELATNS, DEBORAH HUGH, AND RUBELL STARTED LIVG WH BILL HATON, HERRERA’S SIGN ASSOCIATE.“STEVE HAD NEVER HAD A LONG-TERM RELATNSHIP BEFORE,” SAYS HATON. “BUT THEN, HE NEVER EXPECTED TO LIVE LONG. SOMEBODY WHO GO AT HIS PACE, AND CREATED SOMETHG THAT BIG, WELL, YOUR BODY AND MD JT N’T DO FOR A LONG TIME. HE ALWAYS TOLD ME HE’D RATHER DO WHAT HE WANTED AND LIVE LS THAN DO NOTHG AND LIVE TO 75.”I VISED HATON THE WT 55TH STREET APARTMENT HE SHARED WH RUBELL, WHO HAD RENTED THE MID-70S. “THIS WAS STEVE’S ROOM, WHICH WAS PLETELY BLACK THEN,” HE SAID, SHOWG ME THE BEDROOM, WHICH IS NOW BLUE AND WHE AND AIRY. “EVEN THE WDOWS WERE PATED BLACK. BEE HE’D GET HOME AT SIX THE MORNG, AND THE ONLY TIME HE ULD SLEEP WAS DURG THE DAY. THE BATHROOM WAS VERED GOLD FOIL, AND THE KCHEN WAS ALL MIRRORS—THE CEILG, THE FLOOR, EVERYTHG.”IN THE LIVG ROOM, WHICH WAS ONCE LTERED WH PROPS OM STUD 54 PARTI, HATON POTED TO A PAIR OF MAHOGANY BOOKSHELV ON EHER SI OF THE WHE BRICK FIREPLACE. “I’M GOG TO SHOW YOU SOMETHG,” HE SAID. HE PROCEED TO PULL THE BOOKSHELV AWAY OM THE WALLS, WHICH ARE VERED RED FABRIC, AND THEN PRY THE WALLS THEMSELV OPEN TO REVEAL MORE SHELVG SET TO WHAT HAD ONCE BEEN WDOW AM. ON THE RIGHT SI WERE STACKS OF ACUNTG LEDGERS, GOG BACK TO RUBELL’S STEAK LOFTS AND THE ENCHANTED GARN, AND PIL OF YELLOWED PRS CLIPPGS ABOUT STUD 54. THE SHELV ON THE LEFT WERE EMPTY.“THIS IS WHERE STEVE SAID HE ED TO KEEP THE MONEY,” HATON EXPLAED. “HE TOLD ME THAT ONE DAY HE VED ANDY WARHOL OVER AND PUT A BIG PILE OF SH ON THE FFEE TABLE AND LEFT HIM ALONE FOR A UPLE OF HOURS TO PLAY WH . BEE HE KNEW HOW HAPPY THAT WOULD MAKE ANDY.”OR AS THE LATE KG OF DIS’S NEPHEW, JASON RUBELL, WHO OWNS THE GREENVIEW HOTEL MIAMI BEACH, PUT , “STEVE MA YOU FEEL SO GOOD, ALWAYS. HIS HIGH ME OFF OF YOU. HE FELT GOOD IF YOU FELT GOOD.”BOB COLACELLO
Co-owner Steve Rubell was gay, which uld expla why stead of the bty women you might expect, the bartenrs at the club were all hunky guys. In 1977, Stud 54 opened and beme one of the world’s most famo diss wh a fn of gay, bisexual, and straight patrons.
DGS, DIS, AND A DEAD BODY: FIVE OUTRAGEO STUD 54 STORIIN HONOR OF NETFLIX’S HALSTON, A LOOK BACK AT THE FAMO 1970S NIGHTCLUB—A FAVORE HNT OF ANDY WARHOL AND CHER, WH A SNDALO HISTORY TO MATCH.BY JULIE MILLERMAY 14, 2021FROM GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEAS NETFLIX’S HALSTON REMDS , STUD 54 WAS A FEVER DREAM OF EXCS. BUT THE REAL-LIFE NIGHTCLUB—WH S GLAMORO VIP GUTS, PLENTIFUL DGS, AND BALNY SEX—WAS SOMEHOW MORE OUTRAGEO ACTUALY THAN ULD EVER BE NVEYED ONSCREEN. HALSTON, ANDY WARHOL, LIZA MNELLI, MICK JAGGER, CHER, DAVID GEFFEN, JACK NICHOLSON, AND MICHAEL JACKSON REGULARLY PACKED THE BANQUETT. SNTILY CLAD DANCERS GYRATED ON AN TOMATED BRIDGE THAT MOVED BACK AND FORTH OVER THE DANCE FLOOR. CLUB FOUNRS STEVE RUBELL AND IAN SCHRAGER PROVID PREMIUM GUTS WH PREMIUM E AND SPENT UP TO $100,000 ON A SGLE NIGHT’S PARTY R. AND SWEATY ATTEN ENGAGED ANONYMO TERURSE ON THE BALNY—WHICH WAS FAMOLY VERED BBER SO THAT ULD BE EASILY HOSED DOWN AT THE END OF EACH EVENG.ANYTHG WENT—SO MUCH SO THAT, WHEN I ASKED HALSTON BGRAPHER AND STUD 54 REGULAR STEVEN GA FOR HIS CRAZIT STORY ABOUT THE CLUB, HE OFFERED AN ANECDOTE SO RISQUé THAT WE NNOT PRT FULL HERE. (IT VOLVED BODILY FLUIDS EXPELLED PETIVELY THE STUD 54 BASEMENT. THE PRIZE: A PAID TRIP TO ST. BARTS.)“HEY,” HE SAID AFTER MY STUNNED PSE, “YOU ASKED.”“NOTHG ULD SHOCK ME ANYMORE,” ADD GA, WHOSE BOOK SIMPLY HALSTON IS THE BASIS FOR NETFLIX’S LIMED SERI STARRG EWAN MCGREGOR AS THE LATE FASHN SIGNER. “NEW YORK WAS VERY, VERY LOOSE AT THE TIME. A LOT OF STUFF WAS GOG ON NEW YORK CY THAT YOU JT ULDN’T BELIEVE. IT WAS REALLY DIFFERENT. THE FALL OF ROME, LET ME TELL YOU. STUD WAS A REFLECTN OF ALL OF THAT.”AHEAD, FIVE OUTRAGEO ANECDOT THAT PAT A PICTURE OF STUD 54 ALL OF S GRATUO GLORY.GAG ENTRY AT ALL COSTSIN HALSTON THE SIGNER LEARNS OF A PERSON WHO DIED AN AIR SHAFT WHILE TRYG TO SNEAK TO STUD 54. THE ANECDOTE SEEMGLY STEMS OM STUD 54 ASSOCIATE BAIRD JON, WHO TOLD THE LAST PARTY THOR ANTHONY HAN-GUT THIS HAD ACTUALLY HAPPENED: “THIS GUY GOT STUCK A VENT TRYG TO GET . IT SMELLED LIKE A T HAD DIED. HE WAS BLACK TIE.” JON ADD, “PEOPLE WOULD CLIMB DOWN OM THE BUILDG NEXT DOOR FULL MOUNTA-CLIMBG GEAR…TRYG TO GET TO THE URTYARD.”DOORMAN MARC BENECKE TOLD THE BBC, “AT ONE POT YOU ULD BUY MAPS WHICH CLAIMED TO SHOW HOW TO GET THROUGH TUNNELS UP OM THE SUBWAY SYSTEM. IT WAS CRAZY.”ACRDG TO STUD 54 DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER MATT TYRNER, THE CLUB OWNERS “CLEVERLY PAID DOORMAN MARC BENECKE MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE TO MAKE SURE HE WASN’T TEMPTED TO TAKE BRIB. HE SAID HE DIDN’T—BUT THAT DIDN’T MEAN PEOPLE WOULDN’T SHOVE THEIR HANDS HIS AT POCKET AND LEAVE DGS AND MONEY THERE.”ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S BIRTHDAY PARTYWRG FOR VANY FAIR, STUD 54 REGULAR BOB COLACELLO CLARED TAYLOR’S 1978 BIRTHDAY THE CLUB’S “MOST AMAZG PARTY OF ALL…THE ROCKETT PERFORMED AND THEN PRENTED THE MOVIE STAR, WHO WAS STANDG ON A FLOAT OF GARNIAS BETWEEN HALSTON AND HER THEN HBAND, SENATOR JOHN WARNER OF VIRGIA, WH A KE THAT WAS A FULL-SIZE PORTRA OF HER. AS TAYLOR GAMELY CUT A GOOD LUCK SLICE OM THE BUTTERCREAM BOSOM, WARNER FLED THE PAPARAZZI.”“A DOZEN WELL-ENDOWED HUNKS, NAKED BUT FOR SEQUED POSG-POUCH, AND SOME WH JOTS DANGLG OM THE RNERS OF THEIR MOUTHS, STTERED GARNIA PETALS THE UPLE’S PATH AS THEY ENTERED,” WROTE TAYLOR BGRAPHER DAVID BRET THE LADY, THE LOVER, THE LEGEND. “THE DANCG AND FUN NTUED UNTIL THE EARLY HOURS, THE ATMOSPHERE HEAVY WH THE STENCH OF POPPERS AND ELIZABETH BEBOPPG WH A BEVVY OF GAY PORN STARS, UNTIL WARNER PUT HIS FOOT DOWN AND SAID THAT THEY WERE LEAVG.”ANDY WARHOL ALSO WROTE A LS-THAN-FLATTERG REP OF THE SHDIG HIS JOURNAL. FROM THE ANDY WARHOL DIARI: “LIZ LOOKED LIKE A—BELLYBUTTON. LIKE A FAT LTLE KEWPIE DOLL…. DIANA VREELAND WAS THERE, AND PEOPLE WERE BEG BROUGHT OVER TO LIZ—SHE WAS THE QUEEN. I MET A QUARTERBACK. BOB WAS WATCHG BIAN [JAGGER] TAKE POPPERS AND HE SAID TO DIANA VREELAND, ‘IT REALLY BE MORE LIKE PAGAN ROME EVERY DAY,’ AND SHE SAID, ‘I SHOULD HOPE SO—ISN’T THAT WHAT WE’RE AFTER?’”THE DIS-DANCG SEPTUAGENARIANTHAT WOULD BE “DIS SALLY,” A “SPRIGHTLY THG HER LATE SEVENTI WHO DANCED LIKE A THIRTY-YEAR-OLD, AND WAS ACPANIED BY A HANDSOME YOUNG MAN NAMED JOHN ON HER ARM,” WROTE MARK FLEISCHMAN INSI STUD 54. “SHE WAS A RETIRED JEWISH LAWYER WHO BEME A JUDGE AND SUDNLY WENT CRAZY DUE TO THE BATN OF E AND THE STUD 54 EFFECT. BUT BACK THE DAY, SHE WOULD DANCE NONSTOP—OM MIDNIGHT TO 5:00 A.M. MANY NIGHTS A WEEK, TAKG ONLY BATHROOM AND E BREAKS.”AS NEW YORK MAGAZE REPORTED AT THE TIME, “A TY, 77-YEAR-OLD LAWYER NAMED SALLY LIPPMAN WAS MOURNG THE ATH OF HER HBAND WHEN SHE HAPPENED UPON THE DIS SCENE AND CHANGED HER LIFE. DRSED TIGHT PANTS AND HIGH-TOP SNEAKERS, SHE BEME DIS SALLY, A STAR AT STUD 54 AND XENON WHO’D DRAW AN DIENCE OF ADORG FANS AS SHE GOT DOWN ON THE DANCE FLOOR.”IF YOU NEED VIO EVINCE OF THE WOMAN HERSELF, BEHOLD: HERE IS DIS SALLY ALONGSI HER 25-YEAR-OLD BOYIEND-MANAGER.MOST POPULARSARA RAMIREZ ISSU STHG RPONSE TO ANTI–CHE DIAZ PROFILEBY SAVANNAH WALSHHOW LILY JAM AND JOE KEERY BEME OLD HOLLYWOOD INS FALLY DAWNBY DAVID CANFIELD25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISHOLIDAYS AT STUD 54“HALLOWEEN WAS ALWAYS THE BIGGT NIGHT OF THE YEAR, DRAWG CROWDS OF OVER 2,500,” RELLED FLEISCHMAN. “ONE YEAR, WE SPENT $50,000 TRANSFORMG THE MA ENTRANCE HALL TO A HNTED MANSN THAT CLUD LIVE MONSTERS JUMPG OUT AT OUR GUTS AS THEY MA THEIR WAY ACROSS RICKETY BRIDG THROUGH A GRAVEYARD, WHILE HOWLG AND OTHER VERY STRANGE LOUD NOIS PLAYED THE BACKGROUND.” DCRIBG ONE PARTY, FORMER MOL KEV HALEY TOLD VANY FAIR 1996, “AS YOU ME UP THE RAMP THE FOYER, YOU LOOKED THROUGH LTLE WDOWS TO LTLE BOOTHS WH MIDGETS DOG THGS. THE ONE THAT STICKS OUT MY HEAD HAD A MIDGET FAY EATG A FORMAL DNER.”AHEAD OF THANKSGIVG 1978, RUBELL ATTEMPTED AN DAC HOLIDAY EVENT FOR WHICH VALENTO FOOTED THE BILL. RUBELL “HAD THE WAERS DRSED UP LIKE PILGRIMS AND HE WAS SERVG TURKEY,” RELLED WARHOL HIS PUBLISHED DIARI. “HE SAID HE HAD TO EXPLA TO VALENTO WHY HE WAS DOG THAT WAY. HE SAID HE TOLD HIM, ‘WELL, YOU KNOW AMERI WAS DISVERED BY AN ITALIAN’…THE ONT OF STUD 54 WAS RATED LIKE THE ONT OF A BOAT. I LOST HALSTON BUT I FOUND HIM A LTLE LATER EATG A TURKEY LEG, AND HE MA ME HAVE SOME. THE LAST PLACE YOU WANT TO EAT MEAT OM IS A DISTHEQUE, BUT LATER I SAW STEVIE EATG THE TURKEY, TOO, SO I GUS WAS OKAY.”FOR CHRISTMAS, ACRDG TO INSI STUD 54, SCHRAGER PUT TOGETHER DIS-APPROPRIATE HOLIDAY GIFTS: “BAGGI OF E…EACH ONE HAD A RIBBON ON , ALONG WH RDS ADDRSED TO SUCH FAMO NAM AS CALV KLE, BIAN JAGGER, ANDY WARHOL, HALSTON, AND SO ON.”AN OVER-THE-TOP EXTHE NIGHT BEFORE RUBELL AND SCHRAGER WENT TO PRISON FOR RPORATE TAX EVASN, THE DUO THREW A PARTY AT WHICH RUBELL WORE A FRANK SATRA–STYLE FEDORA AND SERENAD THE CLUB WH “I DID IT MY WAY.” “WHEN I LOOK BACK AT NOW,” SCHRAGER SAID 2018’S STUD 54 DOCUMENTARY, “ WAS SO PREPOSTERO. WHAT WERE WE THKG?”MOST POPULARSARA RAMIREZ ISSU STHG RPONSE TO ANTI–CHE DIAZ PROFILEBY SAVANNAH WALSHHOW LILY JAM AND JOE KEERY BEME OLD HOLLYWOOD INS FALLY DAWNBY DAVID CANFIELD25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISPER THE LAST PARTY:STEVE RUBELL AND DIANA ROSS WENT UP TO NTROL CENTRAL, THE DJ BOOTH…DIANA ROSS BEGAN TO SG OUT OVER THE CROWD. “SHE WAS BLZED. TOTALLY TRASHED,” CHRIS WILLIAMSON SAYS. REALDO HERRERA, WHO WAS THERE WH CAROLA, SAYS, “IT WAS RATHER MOVG. TOUCHG. STEVE HAD THIS PASSN FOR DIANA. HE HAD EVERY SGLE SONG HIS R.”ROSS PRODD AN EVEN MORE TRASHED RUBELL TO SGG HIMSELF. HE LNCHED TO AN ENTHIASTIC RENDN OF “I DID IT MY WAY.” A B TOO ENTHIASTIC, FACT. “HE BASILLY FELL OVER THE THG AT ONE POT,” ROGER PARENTI SAYS. “WE HAD HIM BY THE ANKL. HE WAS HANGG OFF THE DJ BOOTH. HE ULD HAVE KILLED HIMSELF.”FEDS HAD PREVLY DISVERED $600,000 GARBAGE BAGS, 300 QUAALU PILLS, AND E DURG A RAID OF THE CLUB. THE DISVERI, WHICH WERE REPORTED THE PRS, DISAPPOTED STUD 54 REGULARS WARHOL AND HALSTON, BUT FOR SURPRISG REASONS. PER THE ANDY WARHOL DIARI:“HEARG HOW MUCH MONEY STEVE ACTUALLY HAD, HE ULD HAVE BEEN TREATG SO WONRFULLY. HE ULD HAVE BEEN SO GENERO AND SPENDG SO MUCH, AND HE JT WASN’T. HE DID TAKE TO LA GRENOUILLE ONCE, BUT ULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH MORE…. WHAT HALSTON’S BEEN MOST UPSET ABOUT THE STUD 54 BT IS THAT THE IRS AGENTS DISVERED ANOTHER LTLE ROOM THAT NOBODY KNEW ABOUT, AND HALSTON IS HURT BEE HE’S SUCH A CLOSE IEND AND STEVE HADN’T TOLD HIM ABOUT .”MORE GREAT STORI FROM VANY FAIR — AFTER JEN SHAH’S ARRT, HOW CAN WE KEEP ENJOYG REAL HOEWIV?— BARRY JENKS ON BRGG THE UNRGROUND RAILROAD TO TV— HOW SWIMMG WH SHARKS TRIED TO WARN US ABOUT STT RUD— QUIL LEMONS’S 2021 VANY FAIR OSR PORTRAS— ANDREW MCCARTHY ON PRETTY PK AND THE BRAT PACK— THE 2021 OSR CEREMONY WAS A NOBLE, DOOMED EXPERIMENT— ELLT PAGE FALLY FEELS “ABLE TO JT EXIST”— FROM THE ARCHIVE: THE UNSKABLE JENNIFER ANISTON— NOT A SUBSCRIBER? JO VANY FAIR TO RECEIVE FULL ACCS TO AND THE PLETE ONLE ARCHIVE NOW.JULIE MILLER
Owners Steven Rubell and Ian Schrager moled the club after New York’s gay nightclubs, which were settg the trends for mic and dance. Rubell and Schrager wanted to create a new nightclub that replited the energy of New York’s gay clubs, which were more dance oriented and sexually charged. They were spired after visg Le Jard at 110 Wt 43rd Street ( the basement of the now-molished Diplomat Hotel), a gay nightclub that beme one of the first to blur the le between gay, bisexual, and straight spac.
Among the sign team were many gay men that clud archect Stt Bromley and those who later died of AIDS: terr signer Ron Doud, sound signer Richard Long (also for the Paradise Garage), and graphic signer Gil Lser (known for his award-wng poster for “Equ”). The club was known for s velvet rope door policy where Rubell hand selected guts rangg om unknowns to high-profile gay, bisexual, and straight celebri. If gets too gay, then there’s no glamour.
It attracted many heterosexual lumari as well as such gay and bisexual men as Tman Capote, Roy Cohn, Salvador Dalí, Dive, Bob Fosse, Halston, Mick Jagger, Rick Jam, Elton John, Calv Kle, Karl Lagerfeld, Yv Sat-Lrent, Franc Svullo, Valento, and Andy Warhol. Artists who ma live appearanc clud equent patrons Grace Jon and Donna Summer as well as Sylvter, Jam Brown, Gloria Gaynor, and the Village People. The secret of Stud 54 was that the doormen let jt about anyone who was gay, while male-female upl and women alone faced tough scty at the velvet rope.